Lancaster Bomber set to fly over Bletchley this afternoon

The historic Avro Lancaster bomber will fly over Bletchley Park,  flying past the Home of the Codebreakers at 3.06pm.

These Battle of Britain Memorial flypasts take place at festivals, fairs, village fetes, steam fairs, car shows, museums, fly-in events etc and usually involve just one BBMF aircraft performing a flypast. 

The RAF describes the Avro Lancaster as the most famous and successful RAF heavy bomber of World War Two.

The prototype Lancaster took to the air for its first flight from Woodford, Manchester, on January 9, 1941, with the first production Lancaster flying later that year on October 31.

The Lancaster bomber was at the centre of the famous Operation Chastise – commonly called the ‘Dam busters’ raid – in 1943.

Legendary engineer, Barnes Wallace, created a ‘bouncing bomb’ designed to destroy key dams in the industrial Ruhr area of Germany.

Two dams were destroyed, and 53 RAF soldiers lost their lives in the raid. The raid was later immortalised in the 1955 film ‘The Dam Busters’.

The aircraft are often seen at events commemorating World War II, upon British State occasions, notably the Trooping the Colour and at air displays throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.

The Lancaster bomber also played a key role in Bomber command during the war where more than 55,000 aircrew lost their lives.