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Lancaster
KB976 Section 1 - Military Service
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| Various views of
Lancasters being built at Victory Aircraft works,
Malton, Toronto, Canada. |
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| The occasion of the 100th Lancaster built at the Victory Aircraft Works, Malton, Ontario, Canada |
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| Thanks to Flight
Engineer Tommy Thomson who shared his log of
aircraft checkouts with Dick Richardson, showing
the check-out of KB976 as well as many others. In
1975 during KB976's stoppver at Toronto on the way
to Scotland, Tommy caught up with the aircraft and
met Dick Richardson, passing on the information
seen here. |
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| KB976 Wartime
colour scheme, image supplied by Patrick Garrison |
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| KB976 in the UK
in her wartime camouflage. Photograph provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson. |
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| KB976 in the UK
in her wartime camouflage, photo signed by the Bill Newsum, squadron
CO who flew the aircraft back from the UK from
June 17th 1945. Photograph provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson. |
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| The Royal Canadian Air Force was a big operator post war of the Lancaster. They received 229 of them following the war, of which 100 saw active service from 1945 to 1964, the others being used for spare parts. |
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| The former
Malton Victory Works, by now Avro Canada,
converted Lancasters to the various post war
configurations. The above picture was taken during these conversions. |
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| Article and
picture from 1948 "Aircraft and Airport" about the
post war Lancaster conversions at Malton works, featuring and courtesy of Tommy Thomson. |
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| KB976 was
converted to a Mk10 AR "Area Reconnaissance"
variant following the war, along with
just two others. The conversions also
took place at Fairey Aviation, Eastern Passage,
Nova Scotia. Her initial colour scheme at this
time is also illustrated. The AR conversion
included a 40 inch extension to the nose to
accommodate extra surveillance equipment and
cameras. In this mode the aircraft was used to map
the Canadian Arctic as well as monitor Soviet
Submarine movements. |
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| The Mk10 AR Modifications to nose and tail for KB976 |
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| Landing at Hall Beach in the (then) Northwest Territories, circa 1961 |
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| A view of KB976
(front) and sister Lancaster AR KB839 |
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| Photograph courtesy of Eric Dumigan |
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The above picture is from
a great Lancaster article - Lancasters Hit Civvy Street
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| The latter post
was RCAF colour scheme for KB976, standard image
reworked to show the extended nose the aircraft
still had at this stage of its career. Thanks to
Chris Clark for this amendment. |
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| Photograph provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson |
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| Photograph provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson |
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| The other two Lancaster AR versions KB839 and KB882 |
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| From http://www.canadianwings.com/Aircraft/Database/database_detail.php?KB976-6107 |
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| The Lancaster
retirement ceremony at RCAF Downsville, 9th April
1964. KB976 in foreground. FM104 in background was
presented to City of Toronto |
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| KB976 was
involved in the last RCAF Lancaster flights in the
official program on 9th April 1964. |
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| The above 4
images are courtesy of Christine Sopczak, daughter
of the late Richard Sopczak. They show her late father's log book of his time as RCAF Aircrew Radio Officer flying on KB976 from Greenwood Nova Scotia in 1954. |
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| Another image
courtesy of Christine Sopczak. KB976 and crew circa 1954 including the late Richard Sopczak (tall man third from left in the back, wearing glasses) |