Hi everyone.

This was posted by Jeff Rankin-Lowe on the Wrecks and Relics mailing
list.

(for those not familiar with this group, it covers preserved and
retired aircraft, however, there are a fair few photographs posted on
it, so it is best to have ADSL or similar if you are going to join.
It is located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wrecksnwrelics/ )

Warplane lands after 40 years

Jordan Press
Windsor Star
Friday, May 27, 2005

Standing in Jackson Park Thursday morning, Bill Hutchinson looked up
at
the plane he once flew.

"I flew these birds in the Second World War," the 81-year-old veteran
said staring at Windsor's Lancaster. "Once you got them up into
cruising
conditions, you could fly them hands off."

They flew easily and landed smoothly -- you just didn't want to go too
fast or you'd wear the brakes out, Hutchinson said with a laugh.

The crews surrounding one of the last remaining Lancasters in the
world
must have heard him. Just before 10:15 am, two giant cranes slowly
lifted the 60-year-old plane off its 4.85-metre pillar, slowly turned
it
due south and then gently touched down the 15,000 kilogram plane.

The Lancaster stood on its landing gear for the first time since 1965.

The whole operation took no more than 10 minutes.

"It's about time it comes down," said Brent Soucie, who came with his
wife Jennifer and eight-month-old son Cameron to the event. "I think
it
should be preserved."

"It's a piece of history," Jennifer told her son, holding him in her
arms.

The Avro Lancaster FM212 -- one of 17 (eight of which are in Canada)
that survived from the 7377 built -- landed after serving as a
memorial
to the 556 Royal Canadian Air Force members from Windsor who lost
their
lives in the Second World War.

"To the veterans, this plane represents more than just a memorial,"
said
Dennis Whitehead, president of the Windsor Air Force Club. "It is a
bridge...a bridge back to the past."

Even the cranes were a link to the past. Moir Crane Equipment Ltd.,
the
firm that originally installed the bomber in Jackson Park, provided
two
cranes to bring the plane down for free.

Around the plane, hundreds of people crowded, some standing, others
sitting on lawn chairs or towels on top of newly-cut grass. There were
those who lived through the Second World War, those who grew up after
the war and took an interest in the plane and students who came from
Kennedy high school next door to watch the deteriorating plane came
down.

"I have mixed emotions about that," Hutchinson said about the city
removing the plane. "I hate to see it come down, but it's the thing to
do."

In 1995, the city hired an aviation engineering firm to regularly
inspect the plane. Those inspections said exposure to the elements had
deteriorated the vintage aircraft. It was decided it needed to be in a
climate-controlled indoor location.

"It's important to preserve it," said 68-year-old Jim Cunningham,
sitting with his grandson Matthew Edwards, 4. "If it stays up there,
I'm
afraid it's not going to last too much longer."

The plane was built in Malton, Ont., in July 1945 and never flew
during
the war. Instead, it conducted photographic research of the Canadian
Arctic from 1956 to 1961, logging more than 8069 hours in the air.

The plan is to eventually have the plane on display at a museum and
use
it as a teaching tool, said S. Michael Beale, president of the
Canadian
Historical Aircraft Association.

Beginning Saturday, the Lancaster will be on display in the park and
open for tours from 9 am to 9 pm until June 10th. After that, the
wings
and engines will be disassembled and the Lancaster will be moved to a
hangar near the airport where it will be refurbished.

After the ceremony, some students stayed around, having got out of
class
to watch the plane's landing.

"We wanted to go. I used to walk by here," said Alix Jee, 16. Her
friend
Katie Fisher added: "There's a hole in Jackson Park."

ONLINE EXTRA

See photographs of the Lancaster bomber as it travelled up the Detroit
River and was then placed on a pillar at its new Jackson park home in
1965. Go to www.windsorstar.com