Russian Lancasters

Cees.
I have seen that pic also. I had reead that they salvaged any useful bits off of her to keep the others serviceable. It makes one wonder if she is more intact than NF920 in Sweden?!

Don’t know Peter,

But judging by the photograph as printed in one of the “Lancaster at War” series which shows one Lancaster in complete form on it belly among trees (with the engine nacelles having gouged channels in the mud apparently) there are some exciting things to be recovered yet. There were rumours that one of these Lancs was flying in the fifties, and later that a big name in the warbird scene was involved with acquiring one.

But unless someone proves otherwise, no news as of yet I guess.

Cheers

Cees

ok then……

Email a picture to me… IMe hardly the chap that can fly off and recover a lanc……

Peter – None of the various people who have been interested in the Russian Lancaster’s is likely to post a picture of one whilst there is any chance of them getting one.

crash sites

Thanks Tom These sites are interesting.
I was hoping that someon would ahve photos or a website link to photos of the lancaster wrecs in russia…..

Here you go Peter, have a look on Mikael’s site, most of the German projects listed are from Russian recoveries.

http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/

…also the Spit IX on the TFC site is another one too (for something a little more patriotic 😉

http://www.fighter-collection.com/spit_ix_2/

Then there’s this Buffalo section too

http://www.danford.net/sight.htm

…and scroll down this one to see a few more of pics from Russian recoveries.

http://www.barnstormers.com/retr0000.html

Should keep you busy for a while.

Tom.

photos if possible

So are there any photos of the wrecksites then on the internet? I would like to see some photos of the remaining wreckage..

Ant, I’m certainly no expert on things Russian though I do have some friends who know a lot more than I and one told me a while back that things are actually beginning to get more legal, there was a YAK 7 illegally removed from a well known site in the Murmansk region and it ended up that the local equivalent of a mayor issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the ‘removal company’ as there had been many illegal wreck removals prior to this attempt and the local officials were either beginning to wise up to the efforts of the recoverers or their back pockets were getting too full of cash 😉 I really hope that the situation does change over in that part of the world but until they see that a wreck does not necessarily mean that it is worth as much as a flyer (as some seem to think) then we might not see as many projects leave the borders of Russia as more and more companies over there want to recover and then restore the airframes that they recover and get more for their efforts as U$D are worth lots to them.

Tom.

russian lancs

I sure would like to see some recent pics ofthe remains though.

From what I’ve read,there is a big problem with the Russian mafia and other corrupt groups becoming involved in these recovery operations.In one case a few years ago,one ‘mafia’ group sold one Hurricane wreck to a number of different western collectors. They then cut the aircraft up into sections,one buyer getting the wings,one the tail etc etc,and some got nothing at all.As far as I know,there have been very few prosecutions brought against anyone for this type of crime,and I’m lead to belive that it’s still pretty rife.All in all,these discoveries are best kept secret to try and prevent criminal involvement,but it may be that thoughts of recovery attempts have been thwarted by criminal activity.

David , are you involved with Aeroventure? Just you said “we” 🙂

Thanks for posting the photo 🙂

regards, steve

ps- if you want to make it bigger i say we all club together for a flat bed truck and head off to sandtoft.

pps- why are these lancasters inside russia such a mystery, are there owners very protective of their interests or is it somehting political?

Peter – the fuselage of KB994 was brought over to repair her hence this part and the section just forward of it here surplus once stripped. This is the part under restoration but we would like to make it bigger!!!!!

If you take a look at the KB976 thread, you’ll see it when it was still attached to the fuselage

Whooah!

Ok David,
Is this the resr section that is going to go on display of KB976 then? Why was this section not part of the package that was sold off to Kermit??

Lancaster KB976 rear

I have heard credible stories of at least two Lancaster’s inside Russia although I was lead to believe that it would be possible to build just one out of them due to their condition.

That was a rubbish post Steve, you didn’t add a ‘ski’ to the end of anything!!!

😀

I get the idea that Easy Elsie’s still ongoing; the chap concerned was looking for a permanent home for her a few months ago, but I’m not sure what the current state of play is.

Regarding Kermit Weeks and Paul Allen, I’d guess they’re waiting for the stock markets to show an upturn before they plough more money into restorations, as are most of the major owners / operators. There’s not a lot of disposable money out there these days.

Tom, I didn’t know about Jim Pearce and a Lancaster, although as he’s had a hand in pretty much every other WW2 aircraft to land on Russian soil, I really shouldn’t be so surprised! 🙂 Anything else you can tell us?

I’m afraidski that I have nyet ideaski about any Russian Lancasterskis, sorryski!

Comrade Lancmanski :p

There was also supposed to be a very intact lanc which Jim Pearce got involved with some years back but it seems to have been forgotten (probably because the Russians wanted too much for it). The only trouble is that with them wanting so much for these wrecks which would need lots of work to get them to static condition it wouldn’t be financially viable to fork out too much to buy the a/c then fork out even more just to get it into a displayable condition. The prime example is Kermit’s Lanc, if he can’t afford to get his example restored then I can’t see anyone else wanting to try, what with Paul Allen’s troubles of late.

Tom.