Runways To War
http://www.thebusyhouse.co.uk/spyglass/bm/just-tour/index.shtmlJust Jane
The former RAF East Kirkby is now the home to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre and Just Jane, one of only three Lancasters in the world still mobile.
The former RAF East Kirkby is now the home to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre and Just Jane, one of only three Lancasters in the world still mobile.
Just Jane, a former Gate Guardian at Scampton, was purchased by Fred and Harold Panton - whose farm covers part of the old East Kirkby airfield - in 1983 as a memorial to their brother Chris, a Halifax flight engineer who was killed on the disastrous Nuremburg raid in 1944 in which 95 aircraft were lost on Bomber Command’s worst night of the war.
With the help of retired flight engineers, one by one the four engines have been painstakingly rebuilt over the years so that the Lanc is now now at a fully operational taxiing standard. In the meantime a wartime T2 hangar was rebuilt to house Just Jane along with a host of fascination wartime exhibits.
The wonderful Just Jane is both a labour of love... and memory
The control tower was renovated and various other buildings house even more exhibits in what is a fascinating afternoon out. Visitors can also take a tour of the remnants of the airfield’s perimeter track and runways on a Queen Mary - a World War Two low-loader.
Lindum Heritage’s Bomber County crew will have the privilege of boarding Just Jane - named after the cartoon heroine "Jane" who appeared regularly in The Daily Mirror and boosted morale during the Blitz and thereafter by taking her clothes off during periods of bad news!
