READY FOR DEPLOYMENT
City staff and locals disagree over where famous Allied bomber plane should rest,
A Lancaster bomber has flown into turbulence as the City of Toronto debates where the “rare and significant” piece of Second World War history should land.
City staff have recommended the bomber be donated to the British Columbia Aviation Museum on Victoria Island, B.C., a plan the grassroots #SaveLancasterFM104 organization is staunchly against.
“I just cannot see that airplane being anywhere else,” said Dan Grant, co-head of the group campaigning to restore the Lancaster bomber FM104 and display it in Toronto.
Avro Lancaster bombers are one of the most famous Allied bombers of the Second World War. There are only17 complete Lancasters left, and eight are located in Canada.
Donating the bomber to the British Columbia Aviation Museum “should assure the aircraft’s long-term preservation and yield substantial public benefits through a novel approach to restoring and interpreting the Lancaster,” the staff report said.
The aircraft was built in Malton, Ont. in 1944. After the war ended, it was used for maritime patrols and search-and-rescues by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The bomber was retired in 1964 and displayed at Toronto’s Coronation Park, and, later, at the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park.
The City of Toronto is paying $25,000 a year to store the dismantled plane near Stayner, Ont. There are no suitable city properties within Toronto to house the aircraft.
The report says the city “does not have a budget for restoring objects like the Lancaster.”
The British Columbia Aviation Museum is prepared to invest “five figures” into transporting the bomber across the country, and “millions of dollars” into its restoration, said museum president John Lewis.
The museum is “uniquely capable” of restoring the bomber, Lewis said. It will partner with Victoria Air Maintenance, which has “an international reputation as aircraft restorers.” The #SaveLancasterFM104 group’s proposal suggests the city keep the aircraft and move it to a vacant city property where restoration can take place.
“Having grown up with that airplane in Toronto and it being there almost all our lives, as a part of our heritage, we decided that we needed to do something,” Grant said.
Grant said he has “assembled a team of aviation experts” for the bomber’s restoration and display. He’s also identified “conceptual buildings” to house the bomber.
According to the staff report, there is no suitable city property for the plane to be stored, and no room in the city’s operating budget for the “substantial moving and storage costs” the city would incur under #SaveLancasterFM104’s proposal. The Economic Development Committee will consider the report Friday.