The Lancaster.

[stevieannie]

I read Rick's commentary about seeing a Lancaster going overhead this weekend, and it stirred up a lot of feelings.

You see, it isn't just "a Lancaster" - it's *the* Lancaster.  There are only two airworthy Lanc.s left in the world, and one of them is a mailplane in Canada.  Here in Lincolnshire we have "The Pride of Lincoln" who flies with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (alongside Spitfires and a Hurricane amongst others), and "Just Jane" - the Lancaster who doesn't fly - she just taxi's at the East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre.

I didn't really get it when I moved to Lincolnshire.  The war was a long time before I was born, and I can't say that I have a particular fondness for machines of any kind, let alone airplanes.  But after a while, you come to recognise the earthy throb of the Lancaster, and the higher pitch of the Spitfires as they accompany her.  You realise that the sound and the history is indelibly linked to the earth and history of this place.

I remember Mum and Dad visiting, not long after we'd moved here, and taking them up Steep Hill in Lincoln.  Halfway up, just where there is a convenient bench to rest, we had stopped to catch our breath and I heard the throbbing that meant the Lanc. was coming.  What surprised Mum and Dad was the fact that everyone else in Uphill Lincoln recognised the same thing, and everyone stopped and turned towards the noise.  Men took off their hats, women held their breath and children waved.  As she went overhead, every head turned, and for one glorious moment a Lancaster and two Spitfires were framed against the backdrop of Lincoln Cathedral again.  It was 2002, but it could have been 1944 quite easily.

It's good to live in Bomber County.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

You're lucky that you have them so close.

For my money, the Spitfire was the most beautiful plane ever built. The proportions and curves are just right, it was designed by an engineer with the soul of an artist. (And the way it gives a little wobble as the wheels are retracted, due to an imbalance in the hydraulic lines which as far as I know was never corrected in any model, is a lovable quirk.)

The Lancaster is an icon. Memorable both in shape and sound, it's my favourite of the bombers. Again, the proportions "feel right" although it isn't as smooth as the Spitfire.

Both used the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, which was part of what gave them the distinctive sound (the rest is due to the propellor design and speed which is why the Lancaster sounds lower pitch). That itself is a lovely piece of engineering.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

YES, sorry, for years there was a Spitfire on display by the Hanley library. I always went into look at it when I went there. My Dad would go into loving detail, and I suspect that he harboured a wish to fly one. And of course since I come from Stoke I always figured on bragging rights when I came over to Canada. But no one know what one is. So I adopted the Avro Arrow as well. Flying? why yes I love to.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I would love to fly a Spitfire. I suspect that I wouldn't fit, though, the cockpit is apparently quite tight (and not being trained I doubt I'd be allowed to anyway).

Hmm, as deltawing aitcraft go the Avro Arrow is quite nice (yes, I had to look it up!). I've never flown (as in piloted) a jet...

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

Don't get me going on the Arrow. When the program was shut down Canada's Areo space industry suffered. I can rant for quite awhile about it, but I'll restrain my self.

[aunty_marion]

Yep, the Hanley museum Spitfire is still there as far as I know!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

For my money, the Spitfire was the most beautiful plane ever built.

Oh, hell yes!

[demoneyes.livejournal.com]

"And the way it gives a little wobble as the wheels are retracted, due to an imbalance in the hydraulic lines"

I have this vague recollection that on early Spitfires the undercarriage was retracted with a hand-pump which had to be operated with the right hand ... resulting in an almost inevitable matching rocking motion in the pilot's other hand on the joystick and hence of the whole plane.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was true of the early ones, and was as much moving the controls as it was the actual wheels. But even on the later ones one wheel goes up slightly before the other because of the different lengths, causing different amounts of drag. Theoretically it should be possible for the pilot to compensate for it but I haven't seen one manage it.

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

It is certainly something special. When it flies over our village people talk about it for years afterwards ;-)

(I missed the time it flew over our garden but the rest of the family won't forget it)

[tattercoats.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. Lovely.

Here in Wiltshire we are near Lyneham, and it's Hercs that male us all look up. Pretty much everyone here knows someone in the forces, and when there's a repartiation the word goes out and folk turn up to line the strees of Wootton Bassett.

Like you, I'm not a great one for machines on the whole. But oh! Mankind can make marvellous things.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I appreciate good machinery, I don't do things with it usually. Which is why at that biker gig you did many years ago I got on quite happily with the bikers, I don't ride but there were some beautiful machines there and I appreciated them.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

That was lovely, just a hint of moisture at the corner of my eye as I picture the men with doffed caps and women with held breath ... beautiful.

[willibald.livejournal.com]

When we lived in Bedford, we used to get not only the Battle of Britain Flight regularly going over, but also the planes of the Shutleworth Collection, and then of course we had the gentle purring that signled the Skyship going over out of Cardington...

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

The Shuttleworth Collection is about a mile from my house: I pass both it and the Cardington hangars on the way to work. In my was-it-that-long-ago? youth, I did some work at Shuttleworth (on the TomTit), and once helped push their Spitfire out of the hangar.

What gets me is that when a Spitfire is near, everyone recognises the sound of that engine. None of us were born when it was operational, but we know a Merlin when we hear one. Same sort of reaction to the Lancaster, and the Hurricane, but it's the Spitfire that instantly turns heads.


The other rather distinctive sound we once got to hear was a Vulcan going on to after-burner directly over our house... that probably won't be happening again any time soon.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Vulcans don't have afterburners, but they could make a hellish amount of noise.

My Vulcan memory is of an air display at Waddington, where they did what may have been the last scramble take-off, of four Vulcans. Of course it was noisy: they could do a simultaneous engine start, and they piped the radio over the PA. I think the controlled was supposed to say "Scramble!" three times, but just in case anyone didn't here, somebody sent up a flare from the tower.

For those poor souls who haven't head a Merlin, this is "Just Jane" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVb-UG8yJw)^[1].

And this page has pictures of Jane. Of course it's NSFW, there was a war on. (http://gocomics.typepad.com/rcharvey/2007/04/the_unforgettab.html)

You know, this sort of thing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zVRey2XEs)

[1] There are a lot of warbird engine-starts on YouTube, but this video uses a slow enough shutter-speed to blur the props properly.

[2} Unreferenced note: This blogger supports the right to arm and keep bears, especially if they fly Spitfires (http://antonia-tiger.livejournal.com/129371.html)

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Well, they told me it was an afterburner....

and speaking of the right to arm and keep bears...

[willibald.livejournal.com]

"What gets me is that when a Spitfire is near, everyone recognises the sound of that engine. None of us were born when it was operational, but we know a Merlin when we hear one. Same sort of reaction to the Lancaster, and the Hurricane, but it's the Spitfire that instantly turns heads"

It's imbedded in the British (and probably European) genome!

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I think it must be.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

There is an operational Vulcan again - there's been a Vulcan "Back To The Skies" appeal going on for many years, and either last year or the year before it succeeded in getting one operational. Tim was working on a barn up a scaffolding nearby when it took off from Waddington for the first time. You could hear it for *miles*. Tim and my Pa-in-Law just stood on the scaffolding and watched as it rose. Incredible. The labourer they were working with was very dismissive, and couldn't believe it when both Tim and Nev turned around and were both crying...

[aunty_marion]

I love the Vulcan. We used to get the 'delta-wings' going over our house in Staffordshire back in the 60s, though I never knew what sort of plane they were and where they were going to or from. But it was always a moment of excitement to see one.

One of my treasured press-cuttings, though, dates from the Falklands War, and says: "Vulcans set to hit Argentina." It appeared on the weekend of a large Star Trek con... *g*

[armb.livejournal.com]

I spent some months working at RAE Bedford, living at Cardington just opposite the airship hangers.
(And lived for years not far from Duxford, so had the Flight fly over heading there fairly often.)

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Does the Aviation Heritage Centre sell souvenir postcards of that formation flight? I would gladly reimburse you for cost and shipping and enough to stand you a pint for the effort.

I *do* have a fondness for that kind of machine.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

It would be my pleasure - if you could email me your postal address to awalker at walkerwork dot co dot uk I would be more than happy to pop something into the post :-)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

*smiles* There was a fly-past of a Spitfire and a Hurricane at the air show I went to last sunday.

[filkarchive.livejournal.com]

The Lancaster made a low pass over Rutland Water while we were racing sailing boats a couple of weeks ago - I had a lot of difficulty getting my crew to concentrate on the boat we were trying to chase down rather than looking up into the skies! Got a gorgeous view of it, though.

[astro-not1.livejournal.com]

Here in the States the main warbirds still flying around are the B-29 flown by the Confederate Air Force and a few P-51s and such in private hands. Many people here get similar feelings when they show up at air shows and the like, but no Americans who weren't in the actual war zones in Europe or stationed at a base in England would have any real memory of seeing flyovers like that. Sadly, the closest I've ever come to such a an experience was one day when I was in southern Tennessee, on my way to an SF convention, and we were buzzed by 2 F-4 Phantom II jets; there is no mistaking the roar of those twin engines, and it does again prove that putting enough thrust behind a brick will cause even that to fly.