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THE roar of a LANCASTER bomber echoed across the
Martlesham sky to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening
of the Martlesham Heath control tower museum.
Click on these to see larger images
First 2 photos © 2001 Alan Powell,
3rd photo by Keith Mindham, EADT.
Still photographs not enough
for you?
!! Click
Here for the Lancaster flyover Video !!
This downloads a 27-second clip of video
filmed by Bob Moore, with sound. You may need to turn up your
volume. Commentary by Gordon Kinsey, accompanied by the excited
audience. File size 350kb which should take less than a minute
to download and the .wmv format should launch your video viewing
application.
Over 600 people of all ages gathered
on the heath to capture the flight of the great plane on film
and in their memories.
A distant roar on the horizon
was enough to hush the crowd and signal the arrival of the
plane. The Lancaster flew low over the control tower
before circling twice, flying three times over the crowd,
sounding just like this (416kb - not recorded
at the time).
Picture from the quarterly magazine
of the Lincolnshire
Lancaster Association
Sq
Ldr Dave Thomas retired as Bomber Leader of the Battle of Britain
Memorial flight (BBMF) on the 23rd September 2001. So the last
display undertaken by him was our flypast. This might explain
why a flypast became a display. He will also be remembered as
the last display pilot of the Vulcan Bomber and that awesome
farewell display at Biggin Hill when he had the whole crowd
gasping with his skill with such a huge machine. I was lucky
enough to be present when he had his conversion test to the
Lancaster in Sept 1997 at RAF Coningsby and lucky enough to
see his final day at Martlesham, indeed we were all lucky that
day.
Tarkey
Barker, 22 November 2001
Celebrations for the museum's
first birthday had been going on all day with several hundred
people turning up, despite intermittent, and sometimes heavy,
rain.
As well as the Lancaster fly past
there was excellent live music from Martlesham
Brass, were also several Second
World War military vehicles and vintage cars on display.
Andy Moore, a member of the Martlesham
Heath Aviation Society, had his Willy's MB Jeep on display.
His Jeep has been used in victory celebrations across Europe
as well as being used in the TV series, Lovejoy.
Another Andy, this time Andy Flexen-Pallott,
made the trip up from Essex for his first public appearance
wearing his authentic Luftwaffe pilot's uniform and 'accessories'.
Click for larger image
The museum was also a popular attraction,
full of memorabilia, photos, maps and pictures taking visitors
on a journey through the life of the airfield starting from
when it opened in 1917. The queue for the museum stretched
all the way round the building.
Robert Dunnett, vice-chairman of the
Martlesham Heath Aviation Society, said that the day had been
fantastic. He said: "I thought it (the fly past)
was so emotional - I don't think there was anything else we
could have done. We have had excellent support from the crowd.
Our first year here has been brilliant and since we opened we
have had 4,000 people visiting the museum." Bob also paid
tribute to Leiston Air Training Corps and Woodbridge Air
Training Corps, who helped out on the day.
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