Saturday, April 28, 2007

Return of the Lanc to Lincs skies...?

As the Jaguar jet bows out of local skies after three decades, it seems the famous Lancaster bomber is set for a return after more than half a century!

A multi-million pound remake of the 1954 classic film The Dam Busters is being partly shot at RAF Scampton, where the 1943 daring raid to destroy three Ruhr dams flew from.

There will also be footage of the county's two remaining Lancasters based at RAF Coningsby and East Kirkby, near Spilsby.

The Lincolnshire Echo reports that a dozen replica Lancasters have been built in China to recreate the flight scenes for the movie.

The story of the Dambusters led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson and the pioneering 'bouncing bomb' developed by Barnes Wallace is a wonderful tale of British ingenuity and heroism.

When I was a lad growing up in North Hykeham, I well remember cycling to Scampton to see the old Lancaster that was parked at the gates of RAF Scampton for many years and pressing my father to tell me stories of his days as a rear-gunner and wireless operator on coastal command Lancasters during the war and into the mid-1950s

If the new film shows the evocative image of the Lancaster flying over Lincoln Cathedral, I'm sure it will be a huge boost for tourism here in "Bomber County".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I never tire of telling people, I saw one of these flypast the Queen Mother's funeral (I was in the area, not an attendee). Boy was it impressive. Only heightened my admiration of the volunteer crews who flew them and who suffered such losses.

fairdealphil said...

i assume the Lancaster flying at the Queen Mum's send-off to be the City of Lincoln kite of the Battle of Britain flight from RAF Coningsby in Lincs...