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The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre (LAHC) at East Kirkby has announced plans for work costing £250,000 on Lancaster NX611, ‘Just Jane’, during the 2016-17 winter period, which will be a massive step in its bid to return the aircraft to the skies. LAHC’s Andrew Panton says, “This is the biggest news for Lancaster NX611’s restoration in the last 20 years. The goal of ‘Just Jane’ becoming only the third airworthy Lancaster in the world feels closer than ever before”.

RAF BBMF C-47 Dakota ZA947 is currently painted to represent 233 Squadron Dakota FZ692 ‘Kwicherbichen’ in commemoration of the men and women who operated these tough load carriers in support of the D-Day invasion and the Allied advance towards Germany.

One of those surviving heroes, Warrant Officer Knivett (always known as ‘Ken’) Cranefield DFC, recently passed away at the age of 94.

Long-standing members of the RAF Memorial Flight Official Club may remember an item in the Club e-newsletter for August 2015 that reported an incident that had occurred with BBMF Hurricane LF363 on 25th July 2015 when one of the oil pipes to the aircraft’s constant speed unit fractured, whilst conducting a flypast over Cadwell Park racing circuit, 20 miles north of Coningsby.