I was posted to BBMF on the 4th October 1977 where the Lancaster was about to start it’s annual minor servicing. I had hardly got my feet under the desk when one of the riggers told me about rivets popping in the tail end. Further investigation revealed that the aircraft, along with many other aircraft I have worked on, built during that period (Spitfire, Beaufighter) was assembled with a mix of magnesium and hiduminium rivets. The Germans had recognised early on that magnesium rivets subject to heat cycling were prone to corrossion. Aircraft operating in UK seem not to be affected but those operating in the hotter climates were. Remember PA474 operated with No.82 Sqdn. in Africa during the 1950’s.
The UK aircraft industry was slow to learn, problems occurred with the Wessex in the ’70’s operating in the middle east.
Back to 474. I asked a friend from the Repair and Salvage Flight at Abingdon to have a look at the rivet issue. The end result was a repair team was drafted in from Abingdon and they worked on the aircraft all through 1978 and into 1979. 474 flew again on the 2 May 1979.
Listening to a senior member of ARCo a couple of weeks back, his view was the aircraft would be out of action for two years. (He was talking in the pub to an audience!) Major task is to re-spar the tailplane.
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