If you have ever wondered what is was like to join the RAF, train as a pilot and go onto fly a Lancaster Aircraft in Bomber Command, this site may be for you.

I grew up listening to my grandfather talk about his time in the RFC in WW1 and my father about his time in the RAF, based at RAF Grimsby in WW11.

My father took me over to his old ATC hut in Guildford where he trained before joining the RAF towards the end of the war.

In one of the rooms was a Link Trainer with its associated desk and cables and this was the first sight I had of what I perceived as an aircraft. That image has never left me.

At the age of 5 I wanted to sit inside it but that was not to happen for another 60 years until I actually owned one myself.

Over the past 20 years I have restored a Link Trainer, with desk and associated bits, kitted out a separate briefing room and built from scratch a full size cockpit of an AVRO Lancaster using many original wartime components.

Both the Link trainer & Lancaster have been converted to fly as simulators. In both, the gauges have been made to operate as should do and interact with original yokes and throttles.

It is now possible to fly an AVRO Lancaster both day and night and with experience, recreate wartime missions, as we did on the 16/17^th May 2023 when we flew the Dams raid in real time 80 years after the original sortie.

I have always had in mind when building the aircraft that what I have created should act as living history so that we do not forget the 1,000,000 service men & women who served in the RAF during WW11. Many who performed the variety of tasks that were required to keep aircraft in the air who were never recognised for their efforts.

We must also remember that out of the 125,000 volunteers that joined Bomber Command as aircrew, 57,000 died in action or due to accidents.

“We must remember them”

We hope that you enjoy looking through the website and for those that are able to visit on our limited open days can experience what flying in Bomber Command was like in WW11

Andy Sturgess

June 2023