the Panton brothers hatched an audacious plan to honor their older brother Chris, KIA over Germany in WW2. They would buy a used bomber and keep it on the family’s farm as a monument. (thank you Stephen!)

in 1971, they learned of a bomber that was in bad shape, but for sale.

But days before it was publicly for auction, some rich baron snapped it up. He left it exposed to the elements as a static gate guard at nearby RAF Scampton, before finally deciding to sell it to the brothers.  

Not yet learning it would soon be available to by, in 1981, they bought a disused airfield, RAF East Kirkby created from farm fields in 1943, just a mile from their old home to expand their farm.

The new land, which included the original control tower, offered more space for the farm’s growing poultry business. 

A year later, in 1982, the baron made it known that he was ready to sell. 

Fred made an undisclosed offer and set about building a hangar. The bomber arrived in 1987.

In 1989, they opened the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, a folksy museum that Andrew runs alongside his wife, Natalie, and sister, Kate. A few years later, a visiting RAF engineer helped get one of the aircraft’s engines running. After thousands more man hours, all four Merlins roared for the first time in 20 years. The dream of flight had spluttered into life.

Today, 17 Lancasters remain intact, including four in the UK. Only two Lancs remain airworthy – one is in Canada, and the other at RAF Coningsby, also in Lincolnshire, where the Ministry of Defence maintains and crews it for events and flypasts.

In April 1945, the Austin Motors factory near Birmingham added the serial number NX611 to a new Lancaster. It was destined to be part of an invasion of Japan until the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war.

 After a few years in storage, the French navy bought NX611 for patrols of its Pacific territories, east of Australia. At the end of its working life, in 1964, France gifted the aircraft to an aviation museum at Biggin Hill, just outside London. 

But after a gruelling nine-day flight from Sydney to England, a shortage of funds left it largely grounded until its sale to Baron Lilford.

 After the Pantons fired up the engines in the 1990s, Just Jane could begin taxiing runs on the grass landing strip. Visitors can now experience the aircraft’s rattle and roar as they trundle past the old chicken sheds.

Work to make the aircraft airworthy started in earnest in 2009. Size and relative scarcity makes restoring a Lanc far harder than,a single-engined Spitfire, hundreds of which survive, with around 60 still in the air.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/28/ww2-avro-lancaster-bomber-renovation