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."