ERIC ON ... THE LANCASTER BOMBER IN EDMUNDSTON

And this isn't a political rant either. Although politics must be involved somewhere as there can't be any other reason for this disgrace.

This Lancaster bomber, number KB882, is parked up on the edge of an airport in Edmundston, New Brunswick, hard by the border with Québec. It was built sometime in the spring of 1945 and flew 7 combat missions over Germany as well as several assimilation flights, all of which were undertaken with 428 Squadron, RCAF. There are claimes that it is one of only a handful of Lancasters still surviving that flew on active service.
 
At the end of the war, it was laid up for several years before being converted to a photographic reconnaissance role. From 1952 until 1964 it was with 408 Squadron and involved in the project to photograph the High Arctic regions of Canada. Upon retirement, it was bought by the city of Edmundston in 1964 at a cost that was rumoured to be $1500 CAN, refurbished, and then flown to the airfield.
 
Some advertising blurb I saw states that the aeroplane "has been in good hands ever since". It only needs a quick glance to see that they are joking, even though the condition of KB882 is no laughing matter. There are stories that it was still flying until the 1970's, but close inspection made me wonder how that could have been possible. One thing is certain, and that is that it will never leave here under its own steam ever again.
 
It absolutely amazes me how people can just abandon something like this and let it rot away particularly as it's such a rare machine. Pretending it's doing something useful while it's sitting here quietly rusting away is shameful, if not downright deceitful. The latest news - summer 2006 (some 4 and a half years after I saw it) - is that even the owners now privately admit that it has deteriorated badly and that many items from the aeroplane have disappeared. Apparently they are are going to spend some time on it and

1. take off the engine cowlings ("the first time since 1986, would you believe"!) to chase away the birds, demolish their nests, and check for missing pieces (apparently the birds are building their own Merlin engine in the nearby trees)
2. powerwash it (despite my opinion that it's only the dirt that's holding it together)

They are also going to install a donation box to help them with their "restoration plans" - by this they presumably mean they are going to save up so that they can take off the engine cowlings in another 20 years, if there's anything still left of the aeroplane by then.
 
I personally reckon that everyone else ought to install a collection box so that someone else can buy it from clowns like these who have no idea at all of what it is they are supposed to be doing. They are simply going to end up totally destroying a rare, if not unique, piece of aviation history simply because they don't have a clue. Forty-two years it's stood on this site, and in that time it's been transformed from an airworthy flying machine into a pile of derelict scrap, and it's been twenty years since someone looked at the engines.

I've been trying to interest a few other aircraft museums in taking on the restoration work, and I know some people in Chama, New Mexico who will take good care of it. This aeroplane ought to be somewhere like this rather than in the hands of rank amateurs who have no idea how to look after it. What has happened to this aircraft while in the hands of the city of Edmundston is a scandal and ought to be a national disgrace. It is a piece of machinery with a history, and deserves to be treated with respect.
 
So, if you feel as strongly as I do about the scandal of KB882, don't sit seething in silence but write to the communications office and to the city council offices to register your protest. But I hope you have more luck than I do as they don't reply to me whenever I write. But at least my web page has provoked a response from somewhere.

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