I recently took a look around the Lincolnshire Aviation Centre at East Kirkby in Lincolnshire, home to Avro Lancaster “Just Jane” and D-Day veteran Douglas C-47 “Drag Em Oot”.
“Just Jane” Nose art on NX611.
Close up look at “Drag em Oot”.
Another look at the C-47.
“Jane” or NX611 to give her full title, is undoubtedly the star of the museum, being the second live Lancaster in the UK she regularly performing taxi runs throughout the summer. As you can see she was in winter maintenance at the time of my visit which provided a fascinating look at the inner workings of the Avro Bomber.
“Jane” doing her best Manchester impression on the right wing here.
A closer look at the detail on show on the Lancaster.
Surrounding the two big aircraft are a number of smaller artefacts covering everything from substantial Spitfire wrecks, a Bouncing Bomb right up to jet age wrecks such as a goblin engine from a de Havilland Vampire.
Wings Across the Ocean: C-47 and Lancaster wings lining up nicely.
The rest of the museum site compromises of smaller display rooms, including the airfields original control tower which is a really impressive sight. The star of the other rooms is arguably the Hampden restoration, the nose is now starting to look fairly complete, certainly an impressive project.
The Impressive Hampden nose restoration.
One other thing is the impressive atmosphere created on site, it was a quiet and cold morning for my visit, clear skies combined with the wartime music blasting out of the loud speaker made for a wonderful experience. Even more so when the modern RAF came over in their Typhoons every few minutes.
Old and the New: An RAF Typhoon passes over the wartime control tower at East Kirkby.
More details of the collection and displays can be found on the museum website. I hope you have enjoyed this brief look and take a visit yourself soon, East Kirkby is a wonderful tribute to Bomber Command and all who served.
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