Not done a RIAT since the mid/late 90s…even then, it was too big for my tastes and felt like an endless parade of F16s, all in slightly different shades of grey. Beloved favorites like the Lanc would just seem lost there, and I lost interest.

There are stories that an engine panel ‘detached’ on take off, can anyone corroborate..?

Is there enough “business” for a second B-17 in Europe?

To digress away from B17s for a moment, I must admit that I’ve often wondered this about NX611 joining PA474 as a second airworthy Lancaster in the UK. With one being paid for by the MOD and only (I think?) charging a nominal appearance fee, and the other in private hands and inevitably needing to charge a lot more for appearances, you’d think that something would have to give somewhere.

Even a quick glance at the two pics says to me that the bubble canopy pic has a prop blade sticking straight up in line with the centre top of the engine cowling while the pic of N3200 has the two blades at the ten to and ten past positions.

Touching up the black by the looks- in the large version you can just see some Dark Earth bleeding down.

PA474 came off the production line with late style Lancaster undercarriage, which is also the same as that on the Lincoln; likewise, she had the late style enlarged rudders from new.

What’s the arrangement in the Sea Vixen then, that one pump failure kept the gear up? Is there not a pump on each engine, or accumulators that store enough pressure to drop the wheels..?

All four running today and a first look at the new nose art in the daylight…I keep repeating myself but she looks absolutely gorgeous- what a paint finish!