INSIDE A LANCASTER BOMBER
by Michelle Bienias
The PA474 Lancaster bomber is only one of two in flight-worthy condition (the second is in Canada), out of the 7,377 that were built. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Museum, where the aircraft is located, describes the bomber, built in 1945 and earmarked for the ‘Tiger Force’ in the Far East, as too late to participate in the war with Japan, “she was therefore assigned to Photographic Reconnaissance duties with 82 Squadron in East and South Africa. While operating with 82 Squadron, PA474 had her turrets removed and carried the identification letter ‘M'.” In 2000, PA474 was painted in the markings of Lancaster III EE176 ‘QT-M’ (‘Mickey the Moocher') of 61 Squadron, based at Skellingthorpe, one of only 35 Lancaster centurions - aircraft that survived more than 100 missions. ‘Mickey' is believed to have flown between 115 and 128 missions against targets including Berlin (15 missions), Cologne, Dortmund, Brunswick and the breakout at Caen. 
click here to view fullscreen“The nose art features ‘Mickey the Mouse' pulling a bomb trolley and 112 bomb symbols as shown on a wartime photograph of EE176. Four poppy symbols have been added by the BBMF denoting PA474's poppy-drop flights to commemorate the 50th anniversary of VE-Day and VJ-Day in 1995, the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004 and the national commemorations of the 60 th anniversary of the end of WWII in July 2005. The original QR-M survived the War but like so many other ‘Lancs' that had served their country well, it was unceremoniously scrapped.” 
click here to view fullscreenBattle of Britain Memorial Flight Museum Virtual Tour
Adrian Salisbury, of Optical FX, was asked to create a virtual tour of the BBMF’s Visitor Centre and suggested getting inside the aircraft to shoot a unique visualization. As the PA474 is one of only two still in flight, visitors to the Centre are not allowed inside. “There was therefore a massive amount of trust involved in letting us inside to work,” says Salisbury. “No one other than BBMF staff is typically allowed inside the bomber, which is why this tour is so unique.” The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight website contains all details of the aircraft, facilities and personnel of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. You can discover the history behind every aircraft the Flight operates, and meet the pilots who fly and the engineers and groundcrew who maintain and support these magnificent machines. Salisbury’s virtual tour will soon be on the BBMF website. Shoot Details:
Salisbury encountered obvious difficulties in trying to access such confined places; he shot most of the panos with his new boom. “I am not totally happy with the quality of the tours, but in such dark environments and working off a boom I feel they are acceptable,” he says. “The BBMF were thrilled anyway and now anyone can virtually step inside the bomber or sit in a spitfire.”
Salisbury used a Canon EOS 300D, Sigma 8mm lens, Manfrotto 303SPH head on standard tripod. “My tripod allows me to shoot 6 around and the nadir. I then use a lighting boom to shoot the zenith (also used to get me over the spitfires as a tripod was no good). “ He stitched with PTGui and saved out as 6000x3000 tiffs, edited in Photoshop CS2, assembled with CubicConverter (Mac) and cubes imported into PureTools for the fullscreen javas.
View more of Adrian Salisbury’s panoramas of the Lancaster bomber and the BBMF Visitor’s Center.
Email Adrian Salisbury: ady[at]opticalfx[dot]co[dot]uk
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