Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre

The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre is a family run museum and was set up over 20 years ago. It is now widely seen as a living memorial to the 55,500 men of Bomber Command who lost their lives during WW2. It holds one of the rarest aircraft, an Avro Lancaster Bomber, in its collection along with many wartime vehicles including a Ford WOT1 Crew Bus, the only one of its kind known in existence.

We feel that Bomber Command has never been given the recognition that it deserves and we see it as our job to educate both old and young as to the acts of heroism and dedication shown by Bomber Command throughout the Second World War.

Avro Lancaster Bomber NX611 at The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, East KirkbyThe average age of air crew, each man a volunteer, was 22 and not even 1 in 4 completed their first tour of 30 operations, most definitely a debt that we cannot repay but also a debt that should not be forgotten.

We are based on the old wartime airfield of RAF East Kirkby. We retain the original 1940’s Control Tower and our Hangar is built on the original wartime hangar base.

Our Museum is built up entirely around RAF Bomber Command but the exhibits and displays span many areas such at The Home Front and Escape and Evasion giving you a wide perspective on wartime Britain and the trials and tribulation of the Second World War.

The Museum is expanding every year and it is our common ambition to fully rebuild it to a complete original wartime airfield preserving the memory of Bomber Command for many years to come.

Services

Summertime (Easter Weekend- Last Weekend in October)
9.30am-5pm (last entry 4pm)

Wintertime (Last Monday of October – Easter Weekend)
10.00am-4pm (Last entry 3pm)

FREE parking.
We are a dog friendly museum! (not allowed in eating areas)
There are a few wheel chairs available at the Centre for public use. As availability is limited if you would like to use one we recommend you contact us in advance of your visit so we can reserve one for you.

The best way to reach us by public transport
The closest train stations to East Kirkby are Boston, Skegness and Thorpe Culvert. There is also a train station at Lincoln. A return bus runs hourly from Lincoln to Skegness stopping at the nearest town to East Kirkby called Spilsby. Although there is a bus stop outside the Centre’s gate you will need to book a callconnect bus to stop there.

Pilots & Crew

We have a good number of Ground crew, Pilots and Engineers who assist with the running of Lancaster NX611 ‘Just Jane’. We have 9 Pilots all with extensive experience on the Lancaster and the operating of the aircraft is shared out between them. During the taxy runs our ground engineers act as Flight Engineer to assist the pilots operating the Lancaster.

Bob Mitchell (Deputy Chief Engineer)

Almost a local lad, my maternal Grand parents were from Bob MitchellMareham-le-fen and I was born and raised in Boston and educated in Kirton, I now live in Tattershall with my wife Joan. I joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 17 working on many types of aircraft, the last 8 years with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. On leaving the R A F I qualified as a CAA approved engineer, which has led to working on many types of both light aircraft and war birds with companies such as The Fighter Collection, The Real Aeroplane Company, North Weald Flying Services, The Aircraft Restoration
Company, Classic flight, Air Atlantique, (assisting with the major servicing of the BBMF Lancaster) covering a whole spectrum of work and positions, from shop floor oily rag to Chief Engineer.

Bob joined us in July 2010 as restoration engineer on many of our stored Lancaster parts. He is also our airframes engineer for NX611 and is working towards restoring the Lancaster back to its original wartime configuration.

Peter Jeferries (Engineer) (Engineer)

Louise Bush (Taxy ride organiser and Guide)

Louise is grand daughter of Fred Panton and, along with her brother Andrew, works full time at the Centre looking after the museum and the Lancaster bookings. Prior to taking on her current role at the Centre Louise completed a degree in Media Production which has been beneficial in the production of some of the displays within the museum. Louise organises the taxy ride days and is also a guide on board the Lancaster.

Andrew Panton (Lancaster Pilot)Andrew Panton

Andrew has grown up with the Lancaster and the world of aviation inspiring him to carry on the work of Fred and Harold and maintain the Centre.
Andrew’s aim was to join the RAF as a pilot, but as he did not meet the standards for eye sight; this was not to be, and so he has worked at the Centre as a career after leaving full time education.
Andrew has been working with the Lancaster for seven years and has qualified as a Lancaster taxy pilot after undergoing tutorage from Flt/Lt Mike Chatterton and passing the required fields as set by insurance regulations. Andrew is now our resident Lancaster pilot and performs a good percentage of the taxy runs due to the operational responsibilities of our other pilots.
As well as working with the aircraft Andrew also organises and runs the events at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.

Liz Dodds ((Lancaster Personnel Officer and Guide)

Liz joined the army in Sep 1990, completing 22 years’ service in the UK, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands.
It was while she was posted to RAF Digby that’s she became a guide then Deputy Curator of the LIMA Sector Operations Room Museum. It was here she discovered WW2 aircraft.
Liz volunteered from 2008 to 2013 as road support crew at BBMF as well as working as part of the ground crew and maintenance team on a privately owned TRIX Spitfire.
Liz started with NX611 �Just Jane’ in 2015 and hopes they will work well together!

Flt/Lt Ed Straw (Lancaster Pilot)Ed Straw Avro Lancaster Bomber Pilot of NX611 at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre East Kirkby

Ed joined the RAF in 1986 and, after completing pilot training, flew Sea King Helicopters in the SAR role at Manston, Boulmer and in the Falklands Islands. He was the RAF Sea King display pilot for two years (1994 and 1995) before becoming a Qualified Helicopter Instructor (QHI). Instructional tours at Shawbury and St Mawgan followed before his cross-over to fixed wing aircraft and to the E3-D AWACS in 1999. He has flown the E3-D on many operations in Afghanistan and throughout the Iraq conflict and serves on 8 Squadron at Waddington as an aircraft captain and the Squadrons Air-to-Air Refueling Instructor. Ed is the Lancaster and Dakota captain for the BBMF and is on his sixth season. He started taxiing our Lancaster in 2007.

F/Lt Mike Leckey (Lancaster Pilot)

Mike was born in Belfast in 1965 and was educated at Belfast Royal Academy and Queens University. His interest in flying was sparked when he joined Queens University Air Squadron in 1983. He spent four very enjoyable years flying the Bulldog and accumulated just shy of 200Hrs. He joined the Air Force in Feb 1988, graduating from Officer Training in June of that year. Basic Flying Training at Linton on Ouse on the Jet Provost Mk3 and Mk5 followed, before Advanced Training on the Hawk at Valley. Tactical Weapons Training at Chivenor ended in 1991 and Mike was posted to 360Sqn at Wyton to fly the Canberra T17. Whilst there Mike met his future wife Naoko, who was studying English at Cambridge. 360Sqn disbanded in 1994 and Mike volunteered for instructional duties. When his instructor training was complete he was posted to Northumbrian University Air Squadron, based at Leeming. He missed flying the Canberra and quickly upgraded his instructional category to A2 as his ticket back to the Canberra on 39Sqn. The upgrade worked and in 1997 a posting to Marham transpired. He became the Sqn QFI and was responsible for training new crews to fly the PR9. After conversion Mike was immediately involved in operations over the former Yugoslavia. Survey detachments to Zimbabwe, Norway and Germany split up the operational sorties, flown from Southern Italy.

Mike joined the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in 2000 and was lucky enough to gain Lancaster Captaincy after his first season. PR9 operational flying continued in Iraq during Gulf War 2 when the Canberra was tasked with Scud hunting in the Western Desert. In 2003 Mike was posted to the Defence Elementary Flying Training School at Barkston Heath and joined Army Squadron as the 2ic. A fatal Canberra accident at Marham necessitated Mikes return to 39Sqn in 2004 where he remained until the Canberra was taken out of service in July 2006. Mike flew the last ever

operational sortie by a RAF Canberra over Afghanistan in June 2006. 55Sqn at Cranwell was Mikes next tour, training Navigators and Rear Crew on the Dominie.

Time was called on BBMF in 2009 and Mike departed with 400Hrs Lancaster experience and a lot of good memories. Dominie flying ended in 2011 when SDSR removed the need for any new Navigators or Rear Crewmen. Mike then started

lecturing on Instructional Techniques at Cranwell until his current Posting to 45Sqn, as a Multi Engine instructor, occurred in July 2012.

Mike lives near Bourne with his wife and two children. He enjoys riding and restoring old motorbikes and tinkering with classic cars.

Flt/Lt Mike Chatterton (Lancaster Pilot)Mike Chatterton Avro Lancaster Bomber Pilot of NX611 at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre East Kirkby

Mike left the RAF in 2013 after 40 years service as a multi engine pilot and with over 10,000 flying hours. For his first Tour Mike volunteered to fly the Avro Shackleton in the AEW role thinking that would be as close as he would ever get to flying the Lancaster as his father John did in WW2. Then followed 8 years on the Maritime Nimrod at RAF Kinloss in the days of the Cold War tracking Russian submarines and surface ships, and in the Search and Rescue role.

To his great surprise and delight Mike was then asked to join the BBMF initially as a Lancaster Copilot and later Captain. This involved a posting to RAF Coningsby as an Operations Officer and flying BBMF aircraft as a Secondary Duty. Mike’s period of duty on BBMF covered all the 50th anniversaries of WW2 and meant that he took part in many very special events including having the President of Israel (an ex WW2 Spitfire pilot) as a co-pilot for a VE50 flight and dropping a million poppies on Buckingham Palace for VJ50. During his 9 years on BBMF Mike accumulated 460 hours on the Lancaster and also flew the Devon, Dakota, and Chipmunk which he says were all great fun. Mike’s last 16 years in the RAF were spent back on the Nimrod this time in the Electronic Reconnaissance role with 51 Sqn at RAF Waddington. He took part in Operations in The Balkans, Mediterranean, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, as well as several Training Exercises in America, and Europe. When the Nimrod was taken out of service in 2011 (prematurely in Mike’s opinion!) he had the doubtful honour of being the World’s last Nimrod pilot when he delivered the last two aircraft to museums. Although now fully retired Mike continues to fly as often as possible and takes Air Cadets flying with No 7 Air Experience Flight at RAF Cranwell every weekend, is an active member of the Waddington Flying Club with Cessnas, and can occasionally be seen arriving for a Taxi Run at East Kirkby in a 1939 Tiger Moth. When Just Jane started taxi runs at East Kirkby in 1995 Mike was the first pilot at the controls and has remained with us ever since. Mike is particularly proud to operate our Lancaster at East Kirkby as his father was based here in 1945 as a Lancaster Pilot Instructor with 57 and 630 Sqns.

Flt Lt Loz Rushmere (Lancaster Pilot)

Loz joined the RAF in 1992, having previously flown the Bulldog with the University of London Air Squadron. After completing flying training on the Tucano and Jetstream, he was posted to the E-3D Sentry in 1998. Since then he has flown this aircraft in both operational and training roles all around the world. A Qualified Flying Instructor, he has trained pilots to fly both the King Air and the Sentry.
Between 2007 and 2014, Loz served with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, flying both the Dakota and Lancaster. Highlights included taking part in D-Day and Dambusters Anniversary events, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Birthday Flypasts and the Poppy Drop at the inauguration of the Bomber Command Memorial in London. He was also honoured to meet many veterans of both Bomber and Fighter Commands.

After leaving the Memorial Flight, Loz was was asked back to fly in ‘Vera’, the Canadian Lancaster during her 2014 UK tour and shortly afterwards was invited to begin taxying duties in Just Jane. Loz considers himself very fortunate to have flown in or taxyed all three of the Lancasters present at East Kirkby during the wonderful ‘Three Lancs’ events of Summer 2014.

Loz takes great pleasure in taxying Just Jane and looks forward to meeting you at East Kirkby.

Jon Corley (Lancaster Pilot)

Originally trained as an electronics engineer at GEC-Marconi, Jon chased his childhood dream of becoming a pilot and in 1995 started his training as a Private Pilot. During evenings after work, he flew a friend’s World War 2 Piper L-4. He soon realised that vintage aircraft were more challenging to fly well, and this is something he wanted to pursue more. Now with his pilot’s licence, had a burning desire to fly the Blenheim and B-17 Flying Fortress that he saw grace the skies at various airshows he attended as a child. Looking into how he could follow that route, he found out about Air Atlantique that still operated the iconic DC-3 Dakota.

Less than a year later he had moved to Coventry starting a pilot cadet scheme with Air Atlantique, to become a commercial pilot. Once qualified, he moved on to the aerial reconnaissance part of the company flying Cessna twins, before being streamlined into the turbo-prop fleet for freight and VIP passengers on the Fairchild Metroliner.

The company was gradually building up its own collection of classic aircraft, and in 2005 he became the Chief Pilot for Atlantic Reconnaissance and for �Classic Flight’, eventually being qualified on most of the aircraft they operate, as a display pilot, instructor and examiner. Types flown range from the Auster, Chipmunk and Prentice, on to twin engine Rapides, Dove, Avro Anson, Twin Pioneer and DC-3, and even on ex-military jets such as Jet Provost, Vampire, Venom and Gloster Meteor. Although not flying, Jon became involved in taxiing the Avro Shackleton and Douglas DC-6. Outside of Air Atlantique he has also qualified on the Howard 500, Beech 18, Grumman Widgeon and Albatross, and the T-6 Harvard.

Sadly, all good things come to an end, the collection of aircraft at Coventry is gradually being sold off. Jon has moved into the corporate aircraft sector flying Citation business jets around Europe, whilst still being involved in other classic aircraft in his spare time as a display pilot and instructor.

2016 is Jon’s first season on the Lancaster, hopefully with many more to come.

Flt/Lt Miles Davey (Lancaster Pilot)

Miles joined the RAF in 1989 as an Air Engineer and flew in the C130 Hercules aircraft. In 1994 he was selected to retrain as a pilot and flew the E3-D, B200 King Air and Sentinel. The highlight of his RAF career was from 2004-2008 when he flew the Dakota and Lancaster for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. After almost 25 years in the RAF, Miles became a commercial pilot and has flown the Airbus 320/1, Bombardier Global Express 5000/6000 and now the Boeing 737-800. He thought his involvement with historic aircraft had ended but was delighted to be asked to join the team at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre and started to taxy NX611 ‘Just Jane’ in 2017.

Flt Lt Roger Nicholls (Lancaster Pilot)
Roger Nichols first found his love of flying from birth, at two months old he flew in a Dakota DC-3 when going home from Calcutta in northeast India; he regularly flew in the Dakota until the age of 10 when his family returned to the UK. Roger joined the RAF in 1988 after flying the Bulldog at the University of London Air Squadron and realized that he really wanted to fly aircraft. He progressed through flying training and after some youthful exuberance flirting with the Tornado F-3 and the Hawk on 100 Squadron, he went on to fly the Hercules C-130K operationally with 30 Squadron as a co-pilot and captain. Following a ground tour as an instructor at RAF Cranwell at Initial Officer Training he returned to flying, now as a Qualified Flying Instructor, flying the King Air in the Multi-Engine Pilot Training role. Roger is currently serving at RAF Waddington on the Sentinel.

While serving as a flying instructor, Roger was accepted onto the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) flying the Dakota (possibly his first love) and the Lancaster. During his time on the BBMF he was fortunate enough to participate in numerous events including flights over Buckingham Palace, Op MANNA in the Netherlands and D-Day celebrations (Dak & Lanc). Other unique events that have been indelibly etched into his memory are fly pasts over Windsor Castle (Queen’s Diamond Jubilee), Dambusters 70th anniversary and the Poppy Drop for the opening of the Bomber Command Memorial in London. A particular highlight was the 2 Lancs Tour with VeRA (including the 3-ship with the Vulcan and 3 Lancs with Just Jane). Roger was also selected to be a Qualified Flying Instructor on the Dakota and Lancaster, training the next generation of BBMF Bomber pilots. He was fortunate enough to be associated with the BBMF for over 8 years and privileged to fly with some veterans and meet many more. He was also honoured to pay his respects at Fred Panton’s funeral by piloting the Lancaster for the fly past.

Roger was delighted to be asked at the end of 2016 to continue his association with the Lancaster by taxiing Just Jane and thoroughly enjoys the friendly family atmosphere at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.

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