EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is held at Wittman Regional Airport, Wisconsin, United States and is an annual air show held every summer. This is the largest air show of its kind worldwide and is sponsored by the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association). The airshow runs for an entire week in July. It usually starts on the last Monday of this month. While this show is on, the control tower at this airport is the busiest tower in the world.
The 2015 airshow’s highlight was the visit by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Center’s Lancaster aka ‘Vera.’ This Avro Lancaster is one out of the two Lancaster’s left in the world that is still airworthy. This craft is known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in commemoration of Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski, and this plane is colored with the same markings as Andrew’s plane. Andrew was awarded the Victoria Cross (posthumously) for his attempt to free the rear gunner who was trapped in his turret that was ablaze.
This Lancaster C-GVRA was one of the planes made out of 422. The Mk X models were produced in Canada by Victory Aircraft from 1943-1945. This plane worked with the No. 107 Rescue Unit in Newfoundland (Torbay) and worked as a maritime aircraft, taking part in search and rescue missions and general patrol duties. It did these duties until retirement in 1964, by the RCAF. Throughout World War 2 there were 7366 Lancaster’s made.
The Canadian Lancaster arrived in the United Kingdom in August 2014 to take part in displays alongside the BBMF Lancaster – which resulted in a memorable moment of the two remaining Lancaster’s flying together.
This video shows the Lancaster take-off from the runway and then makes several low passes; it even pretends to drop bombs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av7CFW3lIzI
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