Restored Lancaster bomber takes maiden flight in front of a crowd of 20,000

After years of putting a Humpty-Dumpty of a plane back together again, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum Avro Lancaster was finally ready for its maiden flight on Sept. 24, 1988.

A crowd of 3,000 was expected. Instead, more than 20,000 showed up from as far away as South Africa, Hawaii, Israel and England. More than 30 years later, the bomber is still flying with even more gusto after successfully completing a tour of duty at air shows and other events in the U.K. in 2014.

The Warplane Heritage rumbling Lancaster has become an iconic symbol of the city and a tremendous source of local pride. Vera, as it is known, because of its call letters VRA, is one of only two airworthy Lancasters in the world. The other is owned by the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Timeline

- July 1945: Built at Victory Aircraft, Malton, Ont., as the Second World War was ending and never saw overseas service.

- 1945 to 1963: Used as a maritime patrol aircraft with No. 405 Squadron, Greenwood, N.S., and No. 107 Rescue Unit, Torbay, N.L., and retired in late 1963.

- 1970s: On display outside of the Royal Canadian Legion in Goderich.

- 1977: Hamilton's Warplane Heritage Museum purchases the Lanc and brings it to Hamilton.

- 1977 to 1988: Restoration takes place under supervision of engineer Norm Etheridge.

- Sept. 24, 1988: Official inaugural flight.

Dedication

The plane is dedicated to the memory of P/O Andrew Mynarski, who won the Victoria Cross on June 13, 1944, for his heroics after his Lancaster was shot down. As the bomber descended, he attempted to free a tail gunner trapped in the rear turret of the flaming aircraft. The tail gunner survived but Mynarski died after suffering severe burns.

Lancaster at war

During the Second World War the Lancaster was the most successful bomber used by the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force. It had speed, ceiling and lifting power that no other aircraft could match.

Weighing 36,900 pounds empty, the Lanc was capable of taking off with an extra 33,100 pounds of fuel and bombs.

The Lancaster carried 64 per cent of the tonnage dropped by the RAF and RCAF during the war. Lancasters flew a total of 156,308 sorties and dropped 608,612 tons of bombs.

Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing, and gained worldwide renown in the Dam Buster mission in the 1943 Operation Chastise raids on Germany's Ruhr Valley dams, and also the sinking of the German battleship, Tirpitz, in November 1944.

Of 7,377 Lancasters built, 3,932 were lost in action.

Some of the aircraft's finest hours were in non-offensive" operations as the war was waning and after peace. In Operation Manna, Lancaster squadrons dropped 6,684 tons of food supplies to the starving Dutch people in 1945. Many Lancaster squadrons returned Allied prisoners back to England.

Lanc at a glance

- Length: 21 metres

- Wingspan: 31 metres

- Engine: 4 Packard Merlin 224s

- Maximum speed: 440 km/h

- Cruising speed: 340 km/h

- Service ceiling: 7,830 metres

- Range: 4,000 kilometres