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From the scale model to the real thing
The story of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's flying Lancaster, one of only two currently flying in the world, is legendary to say the least. From 1977 when "FM213" was acquired from the Royal Canadian Legion in Goderich to 1988 when it was first flown restored as "KB726 - the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster" to today where it has completed 24 years of museum flight operations.
This Lancaster was built by Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ontario in 1945 at the current home of Lester B. Pearson International Airport by Canadians and is the crown jewel of the museum's flying collection.
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum intends to fly the Lancaster well into the future and carry on with this important mission, but we need you to help us accomplish our worthy task. As we approach our 25th year of flight operations in 2013, we are at a point where the four mighty Packard Merlin 224 V12 engines are nearing the end of their operating life and will need to be overhauled in a planned sequence. In order to overhaul the four engines in succession will cost the museum in excess of $500,000 but will allow us to safely operate our Lancaster well into the future and prevent the premature grounding of this iconic aircraft.
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is a living museum featuring the aircraft used by Canadians or Canada's Military from the beginning of World War II up to the present. The Museum's collection includes aircraft that really fly and several that remain on static display and are interactive workshops.
The CWHM is a non-profit organization whose mandate is to acquire, document, preserve and maintain a complete collection of aircraft that were flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from the beginning of World War II to the present. Our role is to preserve the artifacts, books, periodicals and manuals relating to this mandate.