Just Jane

Just Jane

Just Jane2.kmz (1007 B)   (look in the Historical Imagery, 9/14/2006 )

Just Jane is an Avro Lancaster Mk VII, Serial Number NX611; she was built in 1945, just too late to see action in WW2.  She was put into long-term storage and sold to the French government in 1952 and operated as a maritime patrol aircraft for the next 10 years.  In 1962, she was deployed to Noumea, New Caledonia where she worked as an air-sea rescue and cartographic aircraft.  Judged to be obsolete, she was presented to the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society in Australia, where she was serviced prior to flying her back home to the UK in 1965.

Just Jane at RAAF Butterworth


Just Jane arrives back in UK

She was temporarily grounded pending work to bring her up to Civil Aviation Authority standards and flew again in 1967.  She was flown to Lavenham in Suffolk and, a few years later, in 1972, was put up for auction at 'Squires Gate', Blackpool, but the reserve price was not reached and she was later sold privately to Lord Lilford, who loaned her to RAF Scampton as a gate guardian.

Just Jane guarding the gate at RAF Scampton

She was later purchased by brothers Fred and Harold Panton, farmers at the old wartime airfield of East Kirkby.  For years they had cherished a dream of owning a second world war bomber, to commemorate their brother Christopher, killed over Nuremburg in March, 1944.  She was taken apart and moved in sections to East Kirkby, where she was reassembled and gradually restored to ground taxy condition.

 

Jane moves to her new home in East Kirkby

 East Kirkby has developed over the years into a popular aviation museum and Just Jane is in the process of being restored to airworthy condition.  Meanwhile, she is the pride of the Museum and delights crowds of aviation enthusiasts and the general public as she carries out engine starts and taxy runs throughout the summer.