Canada Ping!
“Man pays $79K for ride on one of only two remaining Second World War Lancaster bombers”
A better value and better use of your money than donating one cent to the deomcrap party.
We had one at our airpower museum; the plane was huge.
I pull down all the money, I don’t ask anyone for permission.
We agree on our personal rights, assert our mutual attraction, reinforce that by constant demonstrations of our devotion, admiration and love...daily.
Further, we agree there is always a budget and I couldn’t care less what you do with the money and ask only for two rooms which you have zero input and allow me some minimal influence over furniture, art and decorations.
Though most women I have been serious with share my tastes.
As the King and hunter of lions I will buy WTH I want.
Don’t I blow enough money on you?
There was a time when I would bet that there were a lot of men who would have paid $79,000 NOT TO FLY in one of those.
That’s a very expensive toy, but it is his money. Better to spend on a warplane vs overdosing on booze or recreational drugs. Racehorses and yachts are also costly.
That money will go toward restoring old aircraft, right?
One of those babies got my slack-jawed attention in 1952. I was on a diesel sub at the time, taking a Grand Tour of the Caribbean, courtesy the USN.
On the way back to the States, we teamed up with another boat and a minesweeper. We had to transit a war games area and the minesweeper was there, flyng all kinds of flags, indicating that we were neutrals.
One afternoon a bunch of us were getting some fresh air up on the cigarette deck, just nattering away. To this day, I remember hearing a background drone and not paying attention to it.
Of a sudden, the starboard lookout yells “AIRCRAFT, CLOSE ABOARD!” as the done became deafening. At that time, I could identify all U.S. prop planes from a far distance, but this four-engined puppy was an unknown - and she was up close and coming in about 50 feet above the water with bomb bay doors wide open. That pilot had the pedal to the metal and you got the feeling of RAW power at work.
We all gaped and I swear I could see the wiring inside the bomb bay as she flew directly overhead. I also could see what looked like a Red Star on the nose and thought that we had gone to war with Stalin and that I was a dead man.
She made a graceful bank and that’s when I saw the red-white-blue circular emblem on the wings and thought “What the Hell are the French doing here?”
She came in again for another perfect bombing run and by this time we were all full of piss and vinegar and pointed our fingers at her, making machine gun noises. Then I saw that the “Red Star” was a maple leaf and it finally dawned on me that the Canadians were having some fun with us.
After a change of underwear, we all wondered what “neutral” meant to those guys.
"Free Republic is here to continue fighting for independence and freedom and against the unconstitutional encroachment of ever expanding socialist government...
We believe in the founding principles with all our hearts and mean to defend them to our dying breath..."
~Jim Robinson
I gulped at the $400 for about 30 minutes on a B17.
Lancasters to me were good looking planes.
79,000 for a ride in an Avro Lancaster!?! Don’t get me wrong. I’m a WW2 buff but here in USA you can get a ride in a B-17 for $400.00
for 79K I hope he got to drop some real bombs.
A read-out from the dark recesses of my beady little mind sez that the full name was Avro-Lancaster. FWIW.
So it went from this Avro Bulls Eye
to this Manchester
to this Lancaster
to this Vulcan
I’d love to take a flight in a B-24 Bomber. My dad was nose gunner on it in WWII. Of course I don’t want his experience of having to bail out, twice, while still in training here in the states and being injured doing so. Engine fires both times on the “war weary” bombers that were sent back to the states for the new crews to train on, while the new production craft went to Europe and the Pacific for combat missions.
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I hope someday to be able to treat myself to such things.
The next day she flew out and the 321st Bomb Wing launched a B-1B and the two aircraft flew in formation over the base. The Lanc was at full throttle while the B-1B was doing everything possible to not fall out of the sky.
I have a great professional photograph of that moment. I doubt it will ever occur again.
My first flight-instructor had been an ME-110 pilot during the war.
Claimed he shot down four Lancasters and three other aircraft (I don’t recall what he said they were).