Introduction
Section 1 Military Service
Section 2 RCAF Mk10 AR Details Section 3 Canadian Civilian Life
Section 4 Preparations for Leaving Canada Section 5
Flights from Canada to Strathallan, Scotland

Section 6
Strathallan Life

Section 7
Leaving Strathallan
Section 8
To British Aerospace, Woodford
Section 9
1988 to present
Section 10
KB976 and KB994 Connection
Section 11
Nose and Fuselage Build
Section 12
Documents List 1
Section 13
Documents List 2
Links 
Credits
Email Me 


Lancaster KB976 Section 9 - 1988 to the present

Glasgow Herald on 3rd July 1989
- Charles Church, KB976's owner at the time, was killed in a Spitfire crash. Prior to his death legal proceedings were ongoing with British Aerospace to attempt salvage the Lancaster project. Eventually these came to nothing in respect of the aircraft's restoration and sadly the project was abandoned. 

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"I spent nearly a year getting KB 976 ready to fly back to Strathallan and in 1987 when Charles Church purchased it from Willie Roberts, I went with the aircraft and was the project manager on behalf of the owner Charles Church. I was there when the roof at Woodford collapsed and was with the project for Charles during the "battle" with BAe at Woodford to try to recover it from the mess it was in. During this time, I went to Edmonton and purchased the fuselage of KB 994 from my friends who owned it and had it parked at Namao air force base. Then later we purchased the Lincoln off Mike Woodley to help sort the project out. Around this time Charles was sadly killed and the Lanc project came to a halt and I stored the Lanc components with Bill Fisher in the wilds of Lincolnshire....after that it was out of my hands. "
Dick Richardson
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The aircraft fuselage was relocated several times in England as new owners attempted to rebuild the aircraft.
Here is the midsection of the fuselage at Sandtoft airfield showing the damage to the roof section. This section is now in Australia as part of the Avro Lincoln project. Picture courtesy of Steven Hatton - www.intothewind.co.uk

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The above two pictures show parts of the aircraft at Biggin Hill airfield.
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The above 3 pictures show the damaged fuselage at North Weald.
Photographs courtesy of Phil Furner, with permission from Glenn White, author of the book "Avro Lancaster The Survivors"

The next few pictures on this page are of the damaged fuselage tail end which is now on display at Aeroventure Museum in Doncaster, UK.
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The following pictures are of the display at Aeroventure alongside the KB976 fuselage section
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In the late 1980s the fuselage of KB994 was brought from Canada to the UK to replace some of the damaged KB976 fuselage. Pictured here is its arrival at Bruntingthorpe. More details in the "KB994/976 connection" page.
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Around 1992, KB976 and some of KB994 were shipped to Florida and the Fantasy of Flight Museum.
The above shows shipping containers at the musuem allegedly containing the aircraft.

The following 4 photographs are from Florida and inside the containers are courtesy of Glenn White, author of the book "Avro Lancaster The Survivors"
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Looking forward into the cockpit from behind the radio bay.
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The nose, seemingly the original nose that was on the aircraft when the hangar roof collapsed. This is the nose that was on the aircraft when it flew over from Canada in 1975, but is actually the short nose taken off KB994 when the long nose was removed from KB976 in 1969.
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The instrument panel with gauges bagged and tagged.
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The mid section is stored in a hangar, starboard side showing here.
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The mid section again, port side front face showing in this picture.
This leaves the current status of KB976 (and some of KB994) as "in-storage" at the Fantasy of Flight, Polk City, Florida USA. Hopefully one day she will be put back together again.

 "....No room to display the pieces at present. I do plan to restore it in the long term, but have other projects ahead of it. Big four engine bombers take a lot of space.." Kermit Weeks, August 2013


The following 3 pictures of the Packard Merlin engines from KB976 at Fantasy of Flight in 2013 are courtesy of Mike Minear
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The below pictures and text are current to December 2015, courtesy of Kermit Weeks.
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This is a post from Kermit Week's Facebook page regarding KB976 and other plans at the museum, posted December 2015

"OK Gang, you all did your part by clicking 3500 LIKES so here's my end of the bargain and the rest of the pics I took recently of my
Lancaster project. This airframe was Canadian-built and flown over to Scotland in 1975 to be housed in Sir Willie's Strathallan Museum in Scotland. I first saw the airplane at the 1983 Strathallan auction where I purchased the Mosquito on my thirtieth birthday! The Lancaster was
later sold to Charles Church but unfortunately damaged in a hangar collapse while under restoration. After Charles was killed in a Spitfire accident it eventually ended up in Doug Arnold's collection. I purchased the project and parts from his son David after Doug passed. It was shipped to Fantasy of Flight in the mid-1990's and has remained in storage ever since.

I have never collected anything I didn't intend to fly but currently need to focus on creating a successful sustainable business with Fantasy of Flight before we dig into the Lancaster.

One day I will have the gut-wrenching decision to face as to which aircraft I should choose to be my next four-engine aircraft project and having to decide between either a B-17, a B-24, a Sunderland, or a B-29 before the Lancaster becomes a priority! I realize that is a cross not many have the opportunity to bear but such are the burdens I find myself having to endure.

I am also mindful (based 30 years of experience) that it's a sad fact a cool four-engine bomber flying in my collection will still not bring enough people through the door to pay the light bill, let alone the cost of the restoration. For that reason, over the next few years, I will be focusing my finances and efforts on creating something that doesn't yet exist that will begin with Act III of Fantasy of Flight. All my aircraft will be there for future consideration.

So, before I bring on the wrath of the Lancaster aficionados, I would like to point out one more thing: it seems we find ourselves living at a time where everyone expects instantaneous self-gratification and I've discovered a few airplane enthusiasts are no exception. Somehow we have lost any vision to metaphorically build "Cathedrals" anymore, where the generation dreaming of, designing, and beginning the construction of a "Cathedral" never sees the finished product that their GRANDCHILDREN eventually enjoy! And while I support and respect everyone out there touring their four-engine bombers, I will be focusing on creating a place with the potential of becoming "THE FOCAL POINT ON THE PLANET FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT" where everyone will come visit us. Fantasy of Flight will be where the aircraft are restored and maintained while being operated in period settings as part of an entirely new Themed Entertainment concept. Think about this - I'm in the only
place on the Planet where 65,000,000 people a year are looking for something new to do. I hope one day people will look back and say, "This was so obvious, why didn't somebody do this sooner!" Visionaries are always considered crazy until they are successful. Then they go down in history as geniuses. Time will tell!

There's a reason why I changed the name of the (Kermit) "Weeks Air Museum" to "The World's Greatest Aircraft Collection!" It's not
about me. Sit back, watch, and DON'T FORGET TO CLICK LIKE!"

Kermit Weeks, December 2015

Another update from Kermit's Facebook provided the below text and picture and videos to the opening of the storage containers.


"OK, Gang, Paul and crew have been doing a LOT of unloading and organizing old containers while I was gone.
After I got home from my trip out west, Paul gave me a quick tour of what they’d accomplished!
Here’s a bunch of Lancaster parts that haven’t seen the light of day in several decades! And while there will be a LOT of work to get it back together, there was a lot of pretty cool stuff! I forgot I had this!
And before anybody tells me when it will be flying and how to spend my money, don’t be so selfish, as I have plans to save this for your great-granddaughters to enjoy! Think of their future.
Expect a video soon!"

Kermit Weeks, 4th April 2022, Polk City, FL, United States


Link to the YouTube video of Part 1 of the Container opening


Link to the YouTube video of Part 2 of the Container opening

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Additionally, at April 2022 the damaged fuselage tail end from KB976 previously on display at Aeroventure Museum in Doncaster, UK is being restored by Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby. This is being restored and will be fitted to East Kirkby's Lancaster NX611 to allow it to continue to do taxi runs as a complete aircraft whilst their own fuselage tail is restored to airworthy condition. A similar arrangement is being undertaken with the outer wings of Lancaster NX664/WU21 from Paris. NX664’s parts will eventually return to Paris. Hopefully the French will eventually have a complete static aircraft in the future.

Pictures below are courtesy of David Kavanagh,  showing the KB976 rear being repaired and readied for use, alongside pictures of NX611 being separated from her original rear fuselage.
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Introduction
Section 1 Military Service
Section 2 RCAF Mk10 AR Details Section 3 Canadian Civilian Life
Section 4 Preparations for Leaving Canada Section 5
Flights from Canada to Strathallan, Scotland

Section 6
Strathallan Life

Section 7
Leaving Strathallan
Section 8
To British Aerospace, Woodford
Section 9
1988 to present
Section 10
KB976 and KB994 Connection
Section 11
Nose and Fuselage Build
Section 12
Documents List 1
Section 13
Documents List 2
Links 
Credits
Email Me