Lancaster NX611 - "Just Jane"

At the old RAF airfield of RAF East Kirby, now the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre there lives a very special project, an Avro Lancaster B.VII, NX61, which built in April 1945 by Austin Motors at Longbridge near Birmingham, now home of the MG car assembly plant. The plan is to get her once more in the air to join the two other airworthy Lancaster bombers and today she had a special visit from both them.

The remaining two airworthy Lancaster bombers have united with a grounded model for the first time in 50 years. The Canadian Vera (Lancaster B.X) and the UK-based Thumper (Lancaster B.III) flew over as Just Jane ran its engines at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. Probably the first time that three Lancaster Bombers had been heard with with running engines in quiet some time.

The museum was set up by Fred and Harold Panton as a memorial to Bomber Command, and to their elder brother Pliot Officer Engineer Christopher Panton (19) who was onboard a Handley Page Halifax flying towards Nuremberg on March 30 1944 when it was shot down by night fighters. The two brothers bought a old airfield near their old home in East Kirkby, and recreated the way it looked under Bomber Command, finally buying NX611 as a centre piece for the museum.

The history of NX611is not what you would expect, as she was built just as the war in Europe ended and she was too late to see service in the far east where she was planned to fight due to the surrender of Japan which occurred shortly after. So she ended up in storage at RAF Llandow, home 38 Maintenance Unit of the RAF, until she was bought by the French in the early 50's and used as a maritime patrol aircraft and in an air sea rescue role. 

When she had finished with the French Navy she was presented to Historical Aircraft Preservation Society and flown Sydney where she was overhauled, before she was flown back to the UK. After a brief flying careerer was put up for auction in 1972 and this is where Fred and Harold Panton started showing an interest in the aircraft. In the end the auction never took place and the aircraft ended up as a gate guard at RAF Scampton until 1983 and it was at this point the brothers purchased the aircraft, with the restoration work starting in 1993. 

So far they have spent £750,000 on restoring the aircraft to it current condition and they need another £3,000,000 to finish the job and get the spare parts they will need to keep her flying. To get her into the air again they are going to need a Certificate of Airworthiness. This involves checking every component, fixing any broken parts and having key parts of the airframe  screened with x-rays and ultrasound for internal weakness. Basically disassembling the aircraft and then rebuilding her.

One of the brothers died last year but the remaining brother and the family still dream and hope that one day she will fly again. In the mean time she does fast taxi runs down the old runway at former RAF base at East Kirby to pay for her keep and the restoration work that needs doing on her. Andrew Panton is following on from his grandfathers and know the bird will fly again and would love to see her fly with her sisters in the sky, rather than having them just fly over her home.

You can find more pictures of the aircraft here as well as details of the aircraft and museum at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre official site which includes a much more detailed history than the one included here.