11-year-old to live out dream, fly in WW2 Lancaster bomber
Royal Navy aeronautical builder Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the Lancaster
In a world where most kids are grafted to their phones and obsess over Pokemon GO, 11-year-old Euan MacDonald is much more captivated by a seven-decade old piece of machinery — Hamilton's prized Avro Lancaster.
On Saturday, the Dartmouth, NS native gets to live out his dream, and take a flight in the historic four-engine bomber at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.
It wasn't cheap. MacDonald raised the cash through crowdfunding, bottle drives, bake sales and hoarding his Christmas and birthday money.
MacDonald's mother Anne-Marie McElrone told CBC News that with the big day approaching, he can barely contain his excitement.
"He's absolutely thrilled that the day has finally arrived and he can't wait to get up in that plane," she said.
The $3,500 pays for an hour-long flight that includes taking passengers around Niagara Falls, across Lake Ontario for a view of the Toronto skyline and the CN tower.
It might seem odd for a young kid to be so invested in a plane used primarily during the Second World War, but MacDonald's father is also really interested in military history, McElrone said, giving him someone to bounce ideas and questions off of.
It's the story of the plane and the people who flew it that really made the Lancaster stick out, she says.
"That's what really captured his imagination."
The Lancaster was the Royal Canadian Air Force's main heavy bomber. The museum bought it in 1977 for about $10,000, and a team of volunteers led by Royal Navy aeronautical builder Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the plane. It returned to the air on Sept. 24, 1988.
Museum spokesperson Al Mickeloff says it's fantastic to see someone as young as MacDonald with an interest in the Lancaster. "To see someone with his passion is incredible."
Hordes of people were involved with the Lancaster, Mickeloff says — either flying it, or helping with its construction. To this day, elderly women make their way to the museum and touch the plane's bomb bay door, he says.
"They'll say, 'that's the part I built,'" Mickeloff said.
"It was an aircraft that touched the lives of so many people."