[1967 Impala]

Here is some history on the Lancaster from Hamilton

The Lancaster, C-GVRA, owned and operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWH), was one of the 422 Mk X models built at Victory Aircraft in Canada between 1943 and 1945. It saw service with the No. 107 Rescue Unit at Torbay, Newfoundland, as a maritime patrol/search and rescue aircraft until retired by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1964.

Lancasters are powered by four Rolls-Royce or Packard-built Merlin engines and was the only aircraft capable of carrying the 22,000-pound Grand Slam bomb.

Between 1942 and VE Day (May 8, 1945), Lancasters participated in 156,000 sorties and delivered two-thirds of Bomber Command’s total bomb weight. The Lancaster won a place for itself in history with the daring and precise bombing raids on the Mohne and Eder dams in May 1943 and with the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz, in a well-defended Norwegian fjord. Of the 7,366 Lancasters built during World War II, only two are still flying today.

The CWH Lancaster was acquired from the Goderich Legion in 1977, with assistance from the Sully Foundation. Following a lengthy restoration, it flew again on September 24, 1988. The aircraft is painted in the wartime RCAF markings of the 419 Squadron, unit code VR-A aircraft in which P/O Andrew Mynarski of Winnipeg was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for attempting to rescue the trapped rear gunner from his blazing turret.