“Ruhr Express” honoured

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On Canada’s 150th birthday, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum has chosen to honour the “Ruhr Express “-the very first Lancaster bomber built by Canadians during WWII.

August 1 1943 was a proud day for all Canadians. The KB700 “Ruhr Express, built in in Malton, Ontario, now part of Mississauga, made it’s departure to England. It was the fist of 430 Lancasters to be built in Canada during WWII.

The plane flew 49 missions in the second World War, but on it’s 49th mission it had an accident on landing.

“It burst into flames. It was completely destroyed.” said Al Mickeloff, who works at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.

Thankfully the crew survived.

To honour the plane, Hamilton’s Avro Lancaster built in 1945, will soon mimic the appearance of it’s predecessor.

“The plan on it’s 50th mission was to fly it back to Canada and have it fly coast to coast as a publicity air craft for the tremendous effort that it had done- but that didn’t happen. However, this year we’ll be able to commemorate it. ”

Right now the crew is working on removing the old primer from the plane. They say that they will be ready to paint in April but that they won’t debut the new design until June.

“‘The “Ruhr Express’ actually has an emblem which is an arrow – a yellow arrow that says Ruhr Express on the nose and there’s a bomb going through it.”