Trail of the missing Lancaster bomber

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

Hello..
Two years ago I recieved an email regarding the remains of Lancaster MKX KB976 and KB994. This was the complete ex Strathallan Lancaster and the complete Fuselage of 994 that Charles Church had bought.

The info I recieved was that the complete Tail section Of KB976 was sitting at Crowland Lincolnshire and the mid Fuselage was at North Coates Airfield and the Cockpit section went to Kermit Weeks in Florida along with parts of 994.
KB994's cockpit was reported to be at Hurn Airport Bournemouth
Can anyone confirm the location of these parts. I have seen a photo of a lanc cockpit at Sandtoft airport and this bears the damage from a roof collapse so it must be KB976..???

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 469

RE: Trail of the missing Lancaster bomber

Sorry but that's incorrect. The rear fuselage of KB976 was at Crowland but was purchased by Skysport Engineering . The rear fuselage consists of from the crew door rearwards minus turret and tail feathers.
At Sandtoft is the next section of the Lanc(KB976) going forward complete with her Squadron codes. If you look at the photo's of KB994 being recovered in Canada you will see that her cockpit is now at Sandtoft sans most of her internals.
Therefore KB976 gained basically the rear fuselage of
KB994 from the trailing edge of the wing. The bits left in the U.K are the parts which were damaged in the hanger collapse.
Regards the Lancaster cockpit , this is from the Lincoln
G-APRJ which is stored at Sandtoft. The identity of this cockpit is TW911 which was fitted to her to ease aircrew escape . She was removed when the Lincoln went through the ownership of Warbirds of GB

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

RE: Trail of the missing Lancaster bomber

Thanks Dave.
This clears things up a bit. Do you know who owns the remains of 994s cockpit?? What is to happen to the rear section of 976 that is at sandtofot??

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 469

RE: Trail of the missing Lancaster bomber

The remains at Sandtoft belong to Imperial Aviation Group.
They are registered as G-BVBP if my memory serves me right.
It's basically considered to be one machine so make your own judgement !