Lancaster parts swap

[Simpo Two]

'Windsor’s historic Lancaster bomber was engaged in battle Monday night.

The contentious question: Should parts from Windsor’s plane — which will never fly again — be sent to Britain to help a Lancaster there continue flying? Or should the parts remain on the Windsor aircraft with more focus on restoring it?

On Monday, after passionate presentations from both sides, council voted to swap stabilizers with its British counterpart.

“We’re very, very pleased that city council allowed us to do the exchange of stabilizers,” said John Robinson, president of the Canadian Historical Aircraft Association which is restoring the Windsor Lancaster at its Windsor airport hangar. “It’s a good thing for Windsor. It’s a good thing for England.'

http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/windsor-to-...

[Yertis]

Good on the Canadians for that but surely we have the capability to remanufacture a couple of fins for a Lancaster? If we can't do even that then we're doomed.

[aeropilot]

Interesting.....

As PA474 has later 'Lincoln style' fins fitted decades ago when it was a trials aircraft at Cranfield, so if FM212 has the more correct earlier wartime style fins, this is a good swap by BBMF in getting PA474 more in keeping with a wartime Lanc

[V8LM]

This has the Lancaster stabilisers.

[Spyder5]

Yertis said:

Good on the Canadians for that but surely we have the capability to remanufacture a couple of fins for a Lancaster? If we can't do even that then we're doomed.

I should imagine this is a temporary fix until the next major service which I think is in the very near future

[williamp]

Cant say I can see any difference??

[JeremyH5]

I don't understand the relative age of the components. Article states the Canadian parts have fewer flying hours left on them than the BBMF ones and yet BBMF is getting a good deal. Have I got it wrong?

[aeropilot]

williamp said:

Cant say I can see any difference??

They are slightly larger in area size. It's pretty hard to tell the difference in isolation, but the difference was very noticeable when Vera and Thumper were parked together over here back in 2014.

[Eric Mc]

The fins on the prototype were tiny - effectively being those of the Manchester -

[Simpo Two]

Heck, I could make them out of MDF!

[twister]

JeremyH5 said:

I don't understand the relative age of the components. Article states the Canadian parts have fewer flying hours left on them than the BBMF ones and yet BBMF is getting a good deal. Have I got it wrong?

Not sure where you got that from the article linked in the OP - I read it as meaning that the Canadian parts weren't as close to being life-expired as the BBMF parts, but also weren't in a fully assembled state, whereas the BBMF parts are fully assembled but have limited flying hours left on them.

Since the BBMF Lanc is still flying, whereas the Windsor one isn't, it therefore makes more sense to swap the parts over so that Windsor get parts which will soon be unfit for flight but which are already in a suitable mechanical/visual state for use on a static exhibit with minimum effort required, and the BBMF get parts which still have plenty of flying life in them once put back together.

[JeremyH5]

Thanks Twister, your explanation matches the article in the link. And makes sense for both organisations. Perhaps I've gone mad but in the original link the article I read before didn't have the same statements and images as the current link. I think. Maybe I had a bad dream.

[dr_gn]

williamp said:

Cant say I can see any difference??

Compare the lower rear parts of the rudders; it's a noticable difference.