Battle of Britain Flight

[Ross365]

Does anyone know what is happening about the BBMF and it's return to flight? I've seen nothing definitive, though there were one or two newspaper articles at the start of the year suggesting that some within the MoD who were expressing concern over the future over the safety of the planes. There was some speculation the Flight my be sold to private operator. All that said, I don't think I've ever seen the finding of the inquiry in to last year's fatal crash.

Of course, the VE 80th celebrations are getting closer.

 

[My Old Landy]

I asked the guide a couple of weeks ago if they knew anything. He said there was nothing they could divulge.
Nothing has been published yet on the investigation. He did say they believed the Merlin engined single seaters will return to the air this season but they haven't been given a date as yet.

 

[OJCar]

https://www.air-shows.org.uk/2025/0...ffirms-the-bbmf-will-continue-to-fly-in-2025/

"RAF reaffirms the BBMF will continue to fly in 2025"

 

[Wedg1e]

I know some of the RAF techs who do the inspection on the BBMF planes; although the frontline aircraft need minimal radiography (and digital rads is allowed) the BBMF planes (and I believe the Red Arrows) are all still shot on wet film. The Lanc has its main wing spar x-rayed from one end to the other... over several weekends, apparently.
I did once suggest to one of the techs that it must be quite an interesting and rewarding task but he was less enthusiastic about shinning up and down a ladder for hours on end...

 

[Morrisman]

I remember driving my old 1934 Morris hot rod back from the NRSA Northern swap meet some 15 years ago, cruising down the M1 oop north somewhere. I could hear/feel a vibration and looked around thinking some tasty hot rod was about to pass me. But no.
Looking out to left field there was a Lanc and a Spitfire flying my same direction, about 500 yards off to the left, and quite low.

That was a moment you don’t soon forget.

ETA: I’d like to think they saw my old jalopy on the motorway and had a similar moment of nostalgia.

 

[Ross365]

I once found myself talking to a stranger who claimed he was a member of the maintenance crew for BBMF (though I had my doubts). I asked him what would be the limiting factor on the operating life of the planes, guessing that it must be the air-frames. He claimed that was not the case and that it would be the engines .

Re the private Lanc at East Kirby; I've heard it said that will never be able to fly again, and also, that return to flight is the long-term goal. Anyone know which is true?

 

[OJCar]

the private Lanc at East Kirby

As I understand it, that Lanc would need its entire Main Spar replaced before it could be considered for flight.
Not cheap.

There maybe other issues.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

We, at Stoke-on-Trent, have a local company called Supermarine Engineering https://supermarine.net/.
I went to a lecture given by them and one thing of note was some Spitfire parts were originally made from magnesium, which has a limited life, so they are having to remake modern version in aluminium. Maybe that could be a problem with the Lancaster as well ?

 

[Ross365]

It's strange to think that when the film "Dambusters" was made (1955), the producers just phoned the RAF and said we'd like to hire a few Lancasters for a month or two, and they just got them out of stock. But sometime later, the decision was made to scrap all of the remaining aircraft without a seconds thought.

 

[DanZac]

It's strange to think that when the film "Dambusters" was made (1955), the producers just phoned the RAF and said we'd like to hire a few Lancasters for a month or two, and they just got them out of stock. But sometime later, the decision was made to scrap all of the remaining aircraft without a seconds thought.

I'm not sure that they were scrapped without a moments thought.

Considering their size and the complexity of moving them, there is still quite a few around, all be it not airworthy. All of the big museums have one, plus the two airworthy ones (17 remain according to wikipedia).

When you consider that the majority of aircraft go for scrap at the end of their useful lives, I'd say quite a lot of thought went into ensuring that there were still a few around.

List of surviving Avro Lancasters - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[My Old Landy]

I once found myself talking to a stranger who claimed he was a member of the maintenance crew for BBMF (though I had my doubts). I asked him what would be the limiting factor on the operating life of the planes, guessing that it must be the air-frames. He claimed that was not the case and that it would be the engines .

Re the private Lanc at East Kirby; I've heard it said that will never be able to fly again, and also, that return to flight is the long-term goal. Anyone know which is true?

Year 8 of the restoration.
They seem to be heading for flight with the detail they are going into.

 

[Morrisman]

It's strange to think that when the film "Dambusters" was made (1955), the producers just phoned the RAF and said we'd like to hire a few Lancasters for a month or two, and they just got them out of stock. But sometime later, the decision was made to scrap all of the remaining aircraft without a seconds thought.

My dad told me a sad tale of some RAF base he was at early in his career, and they had a ‘production line’ of various war planes, heavy bombers etc, down one runway, big diggers were ripping the engines out, smashing the airframes to scrap. The engines were apparently buried somewhere but the rest went to scrapyards.
When you hear just how many war planes were actually built it makes sense, they had no use for them in the post war dream…

 

[DanZac]

They pretty much all go the same way.

During my time in the RAF, Tornado, Phantom, Jaguar, VC10, Buccaneer, Jet Provost, Tristar, to name but a few, all went the same way.

Stripped of the few useful parts that can be reused or recycled to keep the remainder of the fleet flying (if required), then ripped to bits with a big digger, and off for scrap.

It's just the same as how cars go at the end of their useful lives, but somehow seems a lot sadder when it happens to planes, steam trains, and ships.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I once found myself talking to a stranger who claimed he was a member of the maintenance crew for BBMF (though I had my doubts). I asked him what would be the limiting factor on the operating life of the planes, guessing that it must be the air-frames. He claimed that was not the case and that it would be the engines .

Re the private Lanc at East Kirby; I've heard it said that will never be able to fly again, and also, that return to flight is the long-term goal. Anyone know which is true?

500 hours between overhauls on a Merlin, clocking on for 150k a time, plus a prop overhaul.

The lanc at east Kirkby I believe now has zero houred engines which is a big step, and I’m fairly certain it’s sparks in good Nick, she will fly again one day.

There’s a lot more Merlins than you’d think kicking about, so spare parts aren’t a bit issue, and they are on condition, not calendar so if it’s ok on inspection, it’s ok to run. Can’t think of any high mag parts on the Merlin off the top of my head, the Germans certainly used a lot of it which is in part why there’s few and far between German aero engines running today from that period

Edit: I read it as Merlin’s having mag parts, not airframes. Certainly there are mag parts on a spit airframe and these will have to be remanufactured, I’m not certain on who hold approvals for modifying the mag to alu