Lancaster at Boscombe Down.

[GRWL]

A rather far fetched request,in 1950 I was doing my National Service and several of us went to Boscombe Down from Raf Innsworth and to our surprise a flight in a Lancaster bomber piloted for the first time by a Polish pilot !!,is it possible to identify this plane ? number name etc,or is it too long ago !

  Many thanks
   GRWL.

[ScouseBoy]

Do you remember the squadron number?    I feel sure that you will be able to get the squadron number based at that station on that date.   I have seen lots of RAF history books in  Libraries and bookshops.

Can you clarify what you mean about the Polish Pilot, please?

[Flakdodger]

Sounds as if the Lanc was on the Strength of the A&AEE (Aircraft & Armament Experimental Establishment). Most Lancasters in this period were martime reconnaissance versions, so a Squadron, as such, may not be applicable.
I will have a rummage through my Lancaster books.
Dave

[Flakdodger]

Cannot link a Lanc to Boscombe at that time, perhaps it was a visitor.
Then again, was it definitely a Lanc? Might the passage of time played upon memory?
Could the aeroplane have been a Lincoln?
Dave

[ScouseBoy]

Have you seen the forces reunited web site? 

[GRWL]

 Thank you Scouse Boy & Flakdodger for your replies,now the answers to your questions I hope !
 
 Scouse Boy,The word after the flight was that it was the pilots first flight and he was Polish,how true this was I don`t really know and yes i know of Forces Re web site.

  Flakdodger,I`am as sure as I can be that it was a Lanc,we entered down by the tail up a very narrow fuselage past some armaments towards the cockpit and sat down behind the pilot/co pilot overlooking the engines on the wing,also at the Station that day they had a jet plane harnessed to the ground with jet engines going full blast within a blast compound,

  GRWL.

[GRWL]

 Just a nasty thought it wouldn`t be Aston Down I`am thinking of,not Boscombe Down

  GRWL.

[ScouseBoy]

Was it near Bath?  Or somewhere else?   

Who was on the gate, Mod Plod   or RAF

[Flakdodger]

Aston down is interesting - a Lancaster connection! On the Key Publishing Forum (Flypast) there is an interesting thread on Aston down being a Lancaster graveyard
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=96849
1689 Flight was there until 1953 and at least one Lancaster (RT676) was on strength.
1689 was subordinate to 20 MU (Maintenance Unit) and was tied into 41 Group ferry pilot's training.

And another question to go with Scouseboy's- can you recall the camouflage scheme of the aeroplane?