Canadian Lancaster lands in United Kingdom

The Canadian Lancaster bomber which was built in Toronto during WWII, and painstakingly restored in the 1980s, has landed in Britain. The “Lanc” is known affectionately as Vera for its registration number — VR-A. It’s arrival at RAF Coningsby was dampened by the rain however and Vera was unable to participate in a Battle of Britain flypast with the only other operational Lancaster in the world.  But the noble looking bombers — the last two still flying out of more than 7,700 made during the war — posed on the tarmac and were admired by a large crowd, which included more than 100 former Lancaster veterans from the U-K and Commonwealth. Vera is owned by the Canadian Warplane Heritage in Hamilton and was restored over many years. It has been seen frequently over midtown Toronto. The Canadian pilot for the 3,700 mile trip from Hamilton was Leon Evans. He is quoted as saying the meeting of the two aircraft is historic. “We haven’t had two Lancasters fly together in a display before and it’s pretty unlikely it’ll happen again because these airplanes might run out of airtime. Vera’s getting older and already has about 4,500 hours on it. It’s a thrill and an honour to be doing this. I’m sure it’ll be very emotional for everyone.”  Vera has a special heritage designation in honour of an original crew member, Andrew Mynarski of Winnipeg. Mynarski (inset) won the Victoria Cross for his attempts to save a fellow crew member. He died in the skies over occupied Europe. Vera will remain in England and will appear at air shows for the next six weeks before flying home.