7,377 Lancasters were built across two continents of which 4128 survived the hostilities
Wow, that's a pretty good record for a strategic bomber, right?
In Tuscon, AZ, I believe you can still talk to Richard Bushong at the 390th Memorial Museum within the Pima Air and Space Museum on Thursdays. He was a B-17 pilot who made it home, although none of the aircraft he flew ended up surviving. He has some great stories. He's pushing almost 100 years old now but he's the type that will still volunteer to talk to people about it until he can't talk anymore.
@pfunk - Wow - surprised to find that so much interest still exists in such erstwhile bombers. I remember having studied these during my Aero Engineering days. Lancasters, Mustangs and B17 flying fortress were some of my favorites.
Awesome to hear about Mr. Bushong and his experience. Wish I could get a chance to photograph these. I usually photograph birds (as you can see from my posts) and not iron-birds but aircrafts are close to my hear too. 😀 Someday, I hope to travel and be able to take images of all my fav. aircrafts of WWII era.
I don't know if you're in the US but I know these guys like to do tours of the States, although they've been on hiatus for a bit. Unfortunately they lost their B-17 to a deadly crash. They actually offer "flight lessons" in the only P-51D originally built as a two-seat trainer left. It costs a lot but I mean... it's a fucking P-51! Hope they can get back to doing their awesome tours again.
https://www.collingsfoundation.org/flight-experiences/
After reading that Wikipedia article further it seems the FAA revoked their certification to carry passengers and that explains the hiatus. Hopefully that can get resolved. Or they could continue flying the aircraft around the country and just show them to people on the ground, which they already did. It's pretty cool to climb through them! I was actually afraid of something like the 2019 incident happening so I didn't go up on a flight.
@pfunk - Wow - they had B-17 too and they do flying lessons in a Mustang - wow wow wow. Wish I was in the US. Well some day, I will save enough money to be able to travel and see these beauties. You are so lucky to have been able to climb through them. Must have been awesome. I hope the FAA certification issue gets resolved soon.
Thanks for providing so much info. Really enjoyed this.
Yes it is. I had to check and recheck the figures across various sources as I thought it would be much higher (especially when over 400 of those were due to landing or above airfield accidents).
Wow, I would love to talk to him. I cannot get close to knowing how bomber crews must have felt flying sorties.
He wrote a memoir including his WW2 experience along with his later career up to flying F-4s in Vietnam (iirc). It's an easy, short read and only $2 on Kindle if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com/My-Wars-Richard-Bushong/dp/0615198325
Edit: I scrolled down to a particularly good and informative "review" that's more some notes that someone took down while listening to Richard speak. I guess one of his seven planes actually survived the war, but that's still not a great record. https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2D28O5NJRE4TN/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0615198325
Thank you my friend, have just added that to my Amazon basket and will look forward to reading it