Destined to be the pattern aircraft for the Canadian Lancaster B.Mk.X
production this aircraft was flown by Clyde Pangborn and his crew to
the National Steel Car factory at Malton, Ontario, Canada on August 24, 1942 (site files)
(the company was renamed Victory Aircraft on November 4, 1942). In March 1943 it was stripped from its military equipment and
flown to England on May 15. It received a plywood nose, ten passenger
seats, new engines and additional fuel tanks were fitted. Registered
CF-CMS it entered service with Trans-Canada Airlines on June 7, 1943.
Remarks by Carlo Soliani:
"Avro Lancaster B.Mk.I. This aircraft belongs to the very first
batch of B.Mk.I production (October 1941) because it is equipped with
thin, rectangular windows on the fuselage sides, a typical detail of
the twin-engined Manchester. In effect the first batch of B.Mk.I
production was carried out by coupling the new Lancaster wing
platforms with Manchester airframes already under construction.
Moreover, the aircraft depicted seems to be equipped with a small
Frazer Nash ventral turret for two 7.7 mm (0.303 in) guns.
The fuselage windows and the ventral turret disappeared on B.Mk.Is of
later batches of production."
