Description

Derived from the twin-engine AVRO Manchester, the Lancaster was designed for one purpose: to carry bombs. Its bomb bay was stressed to take more than twenty thousand pounds of high explosives. Powered by four Rolls Royce engines, it carried enough fuel to take it deep into the German heartland, destroying cities and wreaking havoc on Hitler’s heavy industries.

The Lancaster is probably best known for the famous ‘Dam Busters Raid’ in May 1943, when aircraft of the RAF’s 617 Squadron attacked the Mohne, Eder, Sorpe and Ennepe dams in the Ruhr, using the revolutionary ‘bouncing bomb’ designed by Sir Barnes Wallis.

In this documentary film the Lancaster is flown from its base at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Hamilton, Ontario by Don Schofield, a retired Air Canada captain.

After a detailed cockpit tour and pre-flight inspection, we join the crew for some local flying in the Hamilton area. Multiple cameras provide detailed coverage in the cockpit while cameras in accompanying B-25 Harvard and Bell Jetranger provide spectacular aerial prospective.

Additional information