25 years since the Lancaster bomber took flight

The bomber is the property of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, and is the crown jewel of its war-bird collection. But really it belongs to the people of Hamilton.

We have claimed it as our own and we’re lucky to have it because more than once the beloved bomber was nearly destroyed.

When the hulk of the Lancaster bomber first arrived in Hamilton in 1979, it sure didn’t look like much. The term “fixer-upper” would be kind.

But we were lucky to get even that much as we nearly lost the Lanc before it even arrived.

Instead, scores of volunteers got to work, raising money, scrounging parts, and twisting arms around the world, to get what they needed to bring the Lancaster back to glory.

In 1988 the fully restored bomber rolled out of a hangar at Mount Hope airport, and lifted off in an historic flight that made it one, of only two in the world that could fly.

That triumph was very nearly cut short by a disastrous fire at the museum, in 1993.

It destroyed the rare Hawker Hurricane owned by the warplane heritage but the Lancaster bomber survived.

And now 25 years after its first flight hundreds of people are still drawn to the roar of its engines, to the story of Victoria cross winner Andy Mynarski who tried to pull tail-gunner Pat Brophy from the rear of a flaming Lancaster, only to lose his life, while Brophy, miraculously survived.

When we see it so often, its hard to remember that it’s not just a plane it’s history.