Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
New Brunswick

Lancaster bomber being transferred from Edmundston to Edmonton

The Lancaster bomber that has sat near the Trans-Canada Highway, between Edmundston and Quebec, for more than 50 years will soon be transferred to the Alberta Aviation Museum.

Second World War aircraft that has sat outside more than 50 years is headed to Alberta Aviation Museum

CBC News ·

Lancaster Leaving

10 years ago
Duration 1:50
After 50 years along the Transcanada Highway, the old Lancaster bomber in Edmundston is heading west to its new home at the Alberta Aviation Museum.

A Second World War aircraft that has been a landmark near the Trans-Canada Highway between Edmundston and Quebec for more than 50 years is being moved out west.

The nose of the old Lancaster bomber in Edmundston still points proudly in the air, but if the Second World War aircraft had been left much longer, she would have ended up nothing more than "scrap metal," the local preservation group says. (Edmundston society for the Preservation of the Lancaster/Facebook)
​Edmundston city council voted Tuesday night to transfer the aging Lancaster bomber to the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton, based on the recommendation of the Edmundston Society for the Preservation of the Lancaster.

The KB-882 is one of 430 Lancasters built in Canada and one of only four still intact to have served over occupied Europe.

The local society had been trying for 10 years to fund a restoration, but was unable to come up with enough money.

"It's a bittersweet feeling," spokesperson Mychele Poitras said of the transfer. "We would have preferred that KB-882 stayed in Edmundston. But on the other side we found a museum who has the plans, who has the expertise, the funding to take care of her," she said.

Edmundston Mayor Cyrille Simard says people in the area will miss the Avro Lancaster, but realize it's for the best.

"The plane has been here for 50 years. The people in community have been attached to it. So obviously we are not happy to see it [go]. But at the same time, in the condition that it was, we had to do something with it."

The bomber is expected to be taken apart so it can be shipped by rail the estimated 4,000 kilometres across the country to the Alberta Aviation Museum, where it will then be reassembled and restored.

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|

Related Stories