Nothing like plane speaking

Perhaps not a mystery in the true sense of the word but still representing a gaping hole in my memory bank was the disappearance in the late 1980's of an Avro Lancaster Bomber from the gates to RAF Scampton just north of Lincoln.

I lived in the area from 1972 after a move with my family from Suffolk. The sight of the large, black iconic aircraft with its RAF markings was very familiar and welcome. I was brought up on war movies, war comics, had guns and military toys, an Action Man and combat clothing. At the age of 9, as I was at the time ,there was nothing more thrilling than a real plane, even though the Scampton Lancaster was serving as a non operational gate guard as they were called.

Scampton had been the wartime base of the squadron that carried out the bouncing bomb raids on the Ruhr dams in 1943, then still within living memory of my parents and grandparents and perpetuated in the Nation's Pride by the Dambusters film.

I thought that the aircraft had been in that main road position for decades when in fact it had only been parked there in the same year of my arrival in Lincolnshire. I always looked out for it on the long straight Roman Road if we had just left Lincoln. It was never where you thought it would be, looming up either sooner than expected or just never appearing until the last minute of possible concentration after a long journey. If travelling south awaiting a glimpse of the skyline dominating cathedral towers there was a large right hand bend in the otherwise true line of Ermine Street. I think it must have been an enforced deviation of the main road around the end of the extended runway which had been needed in wartime to get the heavily laden bombers up into the sky before their many perilous sorties across the North Sea and over occupied or enemy territory.

The kink in the road, now designated the A15, gradually brought parts of the plane into view.

The elevated nose with its perspex glazed forward turret was first to be seen followed by the four propellors and engine casings, the fuselage with its pod like upper turret and then the distinctive twin tail.

The main entrance to the operational airfield was well guarded with personnel and with high outer and inner gates. They must have been a concession to modern security protocol as if in existence in 1943, I speculated, Squadron Leader Guy Gibson's black labrador, as depicted in the movie coould not possibly have got out onto the road and been run over. However politically and racially incorrect the dog's name was it was nevertheless sad that it had died at such a critical period for its master and the members of 617 Squadron.

I moved on with my family from the area in 1979 but did have a year working in Lincoln in 1983 at which time I regularly went past the Lancaster and it still made quite an impression, almost a spine tingling one borne from pride, patriotism and respect for those who fought in the second world war.

I do not recall the first time that I realised that the plane had gone missing.

It was just not there anymore and I had not heard or could not get any information (pre Internet days) on what had happened to it. There was a characteristic in the harsh Thatcher Years of austerity and budget slashing so I thought that the wonderful Lancaster had been a victim of an accountancy purge and had been sold to another country or just scrapped.

I was not far wrong in that it had been sold but to the best possible custodians. Two farming brothers had acquired it as an intended tribute to their brother who had been killed in action with Bomber Command in 1944. The original plan had been to keep it safe in a hangar on the old airfied at East Kirkby farther east and south very much as a private memorial.

It was soon appreciated that one of the ever dwindling surviving Lancasters should be made accessible to the public. Its comparatively short road journey to its new home involved substantial dismantling. In the subsequent reassembling work the two brothers and their engineering team thought it was worth it to try to get one of the dormant engines to run. 22 years had elapsed since the Rolls Royce Merlin engines had been fired up but after a concentrated effort over 4 months engine number 3 was coaxed back to life.

Naturally, under lessons learned the remaining three engines were restored. From a static exhibit the Lancaster was now with some animation and that distinctive noise which attracted increasing numbers of visitors.

In the late 1990's the momentum of the massive horse power permitted taxi runs with the tail beginning to lift up as it careered down the old wartime runway. The next logical progression which has been the subject of detailed viability studies and the acquisition of four new engines is to get the aircraft to actually fly.

It has been difficult sourcing replacement parts and to amass the essential catalogue of spare parts to enable serious contemplation of powered flight but this has been started.

The estimated cost for the project is between £3 million and £4 million but will increase the number of airworthy examples of this fine plane to a staggering three in the world. Not bad for the time elapsed but out of a total 7377 built and with nearly 4000 were lost in action the rarity and heritage value is a critical element that deserves wholehearted support .