Lincoln to Australia

[Mark_Pilkington]

I would like to clarify the current situation following the coverage within Australian magazine 'Flightpath" in its recent edition and subsequent conjecture by confirming publicly the Avro Lincoln RF342 and Lancaster fuselage etc KB976/KB994 have been purchased privately and are being shipped Downunder from England.

This purchase is a private purchase by myself and a fellow Aviation Enthusiast, it is not being purchased by the Avro Bomber Preservation Association or through its earlier public donations, I am the Chairman of that Association and it has returned all of its donated funds and is likely to be closed down within the current financial year as its refund cheques are cleared.

I still intend the Lincoln to be eventually donated to a local Australian Museum and at this stage still intend that to be the Australian National Aviation Museum at Moorabbin Airport, as proposed by the ABPA when it was established, however, despite the fact that I am the current Secretary of that Museum they are not at this time involved in this purchase or recovery.

The ABPA intended for the Lancaster fuselage to be donated to the RAAF Museum, however the private purchase arrangements are likely to see the fuselage donated to a museum closely associated with my fellow Aviation Enthusiast, for eventual display as a completed fuselage, he will choose the appropriate time to provide more details of that.


We collectively are now seeking any leads on Lincoln and Lancaster parts to fit out the airframes internally and externally, specifically any cockpit parts and turrets / turret cupolas or parts for both the Lincoln and Lancaster.

All assistance gratefully appreciated.

(Thanks to those who did donate to the APBA fund raising, I would recommend anyone wishing to donate financially to the Lincoln project consider sending cheques to the Australian Aircraft Restoration Group at PO Box 242 MENTONE 3194)



Regards

Mark Pilkington

email mark_pilkington@hotmail.com

[Dan K]

Catalina? Lincoln? Lancaster?

So how soon can we begin the thread that bemoans the loss of all these classic airframes to the Antipodes?

Oh wait, that's the other forum...never mind!

Congratulations, Mark, on you and your partner's recent acquisitions.

[oz rb fan]

congratulations mark and good luck with the round up of parts for the completion fo this important airframe
paul

[Michel Lemieux]

Good news for you guys Mark.

May I ask a question to for sure you can bring some lights beeing involved quite a lot in the area

http://www.hars.org.au/fleet/beaufighter/index.html

Do you know which Beau is mentionned on thier WEB site ?

Good luck with your parts hunting.

[Mark_Pilkington]

Folks,

For those interested, the first container load of Avro Lincoln RF342 arrived and was commenced unloading today at the Australian National Aviation Museum, Moorabbin Airport.

This container load is consisting of narcelle, spinner components and both wing outer panels, a further 3 container loads will arrive in the future.

The aircraft has been formally offered to the Museum as a donation.

http://www.aarg.com.au/Lincoln.htm

regards

Mark Pilkington


Michel,

sorry for the late reply to question above regarding the Beaufighter under restoration by HARS, I believe this is based on the major structures of DAP Mark 21 A8-371, see the recent WIX thread of that issue:

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=104728#104728

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Many congrats Mark - I saw the airframe at Sandtoft and it is a MAJOR undertaking.

If it helps - we have a BP D Type turret (twin .50s) in our museum which is probably ex Lincoln - www.sywellaerodrome.co.uk/museum.php

I mention it in passing as we have a full set of APs for the turret....

BR

TT

[daveymac82c]

Hey Mark,

First of, congratulations on an awesome acquisition. I look forward to hearing future news about the Lincoln and Lanc.

By the way, I've got a PBY-5A Canso that I've got my eye on. No chance you could help me out... haha... Just kidding, unless you could help. (worth a shot, right?)

I'm trying to figure out a way of acquiring it for the museum I volunteer at here in Langley, BC Canada. You wouldn't happen to know anyone airplane collectors in Canada, would you?


Congrats again,

David

[Mark_Pilkington]

for those interested?

Here are some pics of the Lincoln arriving (in installments) at the Australian National Aviation Museum at Moorabbin Airport, showing one of the two wing outer panels that arrived in early March and the wing centre section that arrived in early April.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

http://aarg.com.au/Lincoln.htm

Last edited by Mark_Pilkington on Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:52 am, edited 2 times in total.

[henry]

hi mark, i don't suppose the museum wants to shift up to armidale nsw so i have somewhere i can volunteer?

nice work BTW, i's great to see such interesting A/C coming to australia.

henry.

[Mark_Pilkington]

Henry,

The museum isnt moving any where in a hurry smiles, but if you would like to help this collection - even by long distance, consider becoming a member or donating towards the collection or sponsoring an individual project such as the Lincoln.

Despite its impressive name and impressive collection, the museum is still only the outcome of its existing volunteer members and the efforts of previous volunteer members over the last 40 years.

Unfortunately the museum doesnt have any flying warbirds etc, having exited its Wirraway and Firefly flying projects many years ago to concentrate its scarce resources on its static collection.

This tends to result in it not attracting the level of enthusiast support, members and corporate sponsorship that the more promenant flying warbird museums in Australia atttract, but it continues to do good work preserving Australian Aviation Heritage.

Consider joining etc at:

http://aarg.com.au/howyoucanhelp.htm

regards

Mark Pilkington
Secretary
THe Australian National Aviation Museum

[Mark_Pilkington]

for those interested,

The third 40' container load of Avro Lincoln RF342 has now arrived in Melbourne for delivery to the ANAM, consisting of:

Centre-Rear Fuselage
(section containing mid-upper turret, aft of centre-section and forward of crew entry door)

Wing Outer Panel trailing edges

Engine Mounts, radiators, engine narcelles etc

These items are expected to arrive at the museum next week.

http://www.aarg.com.au/Lincoln.htm


Regards

Mark Pilkington

[croweater]

Mark have you found many bits of Lincolns in Oz to support your project?

Also what are the bits that you are missing?

Regards Croweater

[Mark_Pilkington]

croweater,

until everything arrives we will not have a definitive inventory of parts held and missing, but essentially we have the entire aircraft other than: no engines, no main undercarriage structure and no cockpit (and no turrets which RF342 didnt carry in its UK service).

There are upper turret tops everywhere, a few upper turrets also exist but are not readily available, similar number of rear turrets exist but again these are not readily available, and it seems perhaps 2 or 3 nose turrets existi, most of these turrets are in existing museums' /collections so they may be available via swaps etc down the track? however a upper turret glase house top has already been secured from the Dubbo museum auction last year and H2S cover has also been located.

As the Lincoln "donated" its undercarriage to the Duxford Lancaster during doug Arnolds ownership We have main wheels and tires but nothing else and need main undercarriage legs, braces/ struts retract rams etc, however there seems to be a number of these around in various hands.


We have engine mounts, cowls and props but no engines and three of the four spinners so a spinner, and any suitable Merlin 66 or 85 engines, although probably only one minimum is required to return one engine bay to complete configuration, the remaining engine pods could be empty with shafts to mount the props if engines are not available?

We do not have a cockpit section or nose section ,and obviously a perfect example of an Australian Mk 30 exists at the Camden museum while the original "Lancaster" cockpit from RF342 still exists in the UK, however it would seem neither of these are likely to be available to the project at this time and a new build cockpit replica section will need to be contemplated. while this might seem a large or even impossible task, the drawings do exist and a number of Lancaster cockpits have previously been built in the UK and the structure up to the nose appears identical?

http://www.btinternet.com/%7EJeremy.A.Hall/cockpit.htm

http://website.lineone.net/~norman.groom/



regards

Mark Pilkington

[Andrew Semon]

What happened to the original undercarriage on the Duxford Lancaster.

"As the Lincoln "donated" its undercarriage to the Duxford Lancaster during doug Arnolds ownership We have main wheels and tires but nothing else and need main undercarriage legs, braces/ struts retract rams etc, however there seems to be a number of these around in various hands"

[peter]

Lancaster KB889 doesn not have lincoln undercarriage fitted. They have Lancaster units installed. Mark you might want to check with them as possibly they kept the lincoln gear or wait a sec Didnt CWH get a set of Lincoln units from the uk? Maybe that is where they went to??