RAF Coningsby: Lancaster bomber returns home after service

The Lancaster was welcomed home by hundreds of people at RAF Coningsby

One of only two Lancaster bombers still flying has landed at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire after undergoing an almost year-long maintenance programme.

Crowds were there to witness the aircraft, built in 1945, touch down at the airbase. It will now rejoin the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

The Avro Lancaster is best known for the Dambusters raid over Germany in 1943. The Coningsby-based bomber is one of 7,377 Lancasters that were built.

Many of them never made it home.

The Avro Lancaster PA474 flew into Coningsby on Saturday from Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire, where it had been undergoing a 10-month service.

The only other airworthy Lancaster is based in Canada

Operated by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), the bomber takes part in flypasts across the country alongside a Spitfire and a Hurricane.

The BBMF's Avro Lancaster PA474

• Building work on the plane was completed at the Vickers Armstrong Broughton factory in Chester on 31 May

• Wingspan of 31.09m (102ft)

• Runs four Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines

• Never saw hostile fighting

• Lancasters were the most successful RAF heavy bombers of World War Two

Source: RAF Museum

The Lancaster bomber dwarfed other planes as it took off from Duxford

Sqn Ldr Mark Discombe said the BBMF was "excited and proud" to welcome the Lancaster back to base.

"The Lancaster represents the bravery of the Bomber Command air and ground crews that fought during the Second World War, with many paying the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom," he said.

"After a short period of training we are looking forward to getting the Lancaster up and in the public eye once more."