PA474 was NEVER converted to B.VII, it has always been a B.1. Where do these stories come from?
I’m amazed that the history of PA474 is now being confused with the markings of other aircraft it has carried. I’d posted earlier a list of the aircraft she has represented since 1973, include KC-A of 617 Squadron, she has only had these markings since 2012. She’s not the aircraft built in 1943! PA474 was built in May 1945, too late for operations in Europe.
She then went to East Africa with 82 Squadron on survey work, and then to Cranfield as a test aircraft, including carrying a laminar flow wing on its back. Intended for the RAF museum, she was taken on by 44 Squadron and return to flight by them, and carried their Squadron markings KM-B. It then went to BBMF in 1973 still carrying 44 Squadron’s codes.
The turret was obtained from Argentina in 1975. It was from a training school and never fitted to an Argentine aircraft. The AAF stopped flying their last Lancaster in around 1966. This turret was shipped to UK by RN and fitted to PA474 in Jan 1976. That is why I said that the picture must have been taken between 1976 and 1979 when PA474 changed codes from KM-B to AJ-G.
And yes, the larger fins were there from the beginning, like a number of late build Lancasters.
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