Canada Ping!
Posted on 08/02/2014 12:25:57 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
Matthew Munson, age 34, of Henley-on-Thames, England, is an affable, unpretentious and ridiculously wealthy Brit. By his own admission he is captive to some impulsive spending habits, particularly when the spending involves mechanical things — planes, trains, helicopters, automobiles and the like, but no boats.
His wife Helen is familiar with her husband’s financial proclivities. As she puts it, she’s “a bit used to him doing these sorts of things,” such as buying a $250,000 Ferrari to add to his Ferrari collection (he owns 12) without asking her first.
“I didn’t realize I hadn’t told her,” Mr. Munson says, laughing.
Ms. Munson was duly informed in advance of his latest gambit. She even encouraged it, if not the final price.
The electrical engineer with the thriving international IT business paid $79,000 in an online auction for a seat on an original, Second World War, Canadian-made Lancaster bomber, departing from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Hamilton International Airport Monday for a two-month air show tour of England.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Canada Ping!
“Man pays $79K for ride on one of only two remaining Second World War Lancaster bombers”
A better value and better use of your money than donating one cent to the deomcrap party.
We had one at our airpower museum; the plane was huge.
I pull down all the money, I don’t ask anyone for permission.
We agree on our personal rights, assert our mutual attraction, reinforce that by constant demonstrations of our devotion, admiration and love...daily.
Further, we agree there is always a budget and I couldn’t care less what you do with the money and ask only for two rooms which you have zero input and allow me some minimal influence over furniture, art and decorations.
Though most women I have been serious with share my tastes.
As the King and hunter of lions I will buy WTH I want.
Don’t I blow enough money on you?
It may be safe to say he’s at least somewhat conservative with a capitalist attitude and love of militaria. I hope he gets many more joy rides for his money.
There was a time when I would bet that there were a lot of men who would have paid $79,000 NOT TO FLY in one of those.
No doubt about that.
Impressive!
Remember all the `Lanc’ bombers in “The Dam Busters”?
Of course that was only ten years after V-E Day that they made that film.
Wonder how many flyable Hurricanes & Spitfires are still about?
That’s a very expensive toy, but it is his money. Better to spend on a warplane vs overdosing on booze or recreational drugs. Racehorses and yachts are also costly.
That money will go toward restoring old aircraft, right?
One of those babies got my slack-jawed attention in 1952. I was on a diesel sub at the time, taking a Grand Tour of the Caribbean, courtesy the USN.
On the way back to the States, we teamed up with another boat and a minesweeper. We had to transit a war games area and the minesweeper was there, flyng all kinds of flags, indicating that we were neutrals.
One afternoon a bunch of us were getting some fresh air up on the cigarette deck, just nattering away. To this day, I remember hearing a background drone and not paying attention to it.
Of a sudden, the starboard lookout yells “AIRCRAFT, CLOSE ABOARD!” as the done became deafening. At that time, I could identify all U.S. prop planes from a far distance, but this four-engined puppy was an unknown - and she was up close and coming in about 50 feet above the water with bomb bay doors wide open. That pilot had the pedal to the metal and you got the feeling of RAW power at work.
We all gaped and I swear I could see the wiring inside the bomb bay as she flew directly overhead. I also could see what looked like a Red Star on the nose and thought that we had gone to war with Stalin and that I was a dead man.
She made a graceful bank and that’s when I saw the red-white-blue circular emblem on the wings and thought “What the Hell are the French doing here?”
She came in again for another perfect bombing run and by this time we were all full of piss and vinegar and pointed our fingers at her, making machine gun noises. Then I saw that the “Red Star” was a maple leaf and it finally dawned on me that the Canadians were having some fun with us.
After a change of underwear, we all wondered what “neutral” meant to those guys.
Remember the black lab’s name.
There were still a lot of Lancs in service until the early 1960s. The aircraft doing the tour was used by the RCAF for search-and-rescue until late 1963.
Given the price of UK aircraft fuel and landing fees at most airports It probably won't even cover the flying costs.
Fuel consumption seems to be around 150 Imperial gallons per hour at a cruise height leaned out, and up to 400 Imperial gallons per hour at more power lower down -
http://www.plane-design.com/documentation/lancaster/lancastermanual.pdf
That money won't last long...:^)
Earlier on the day of the raid, the flight leader’s black Lab was struck and killed by a hit & run driver.
He gave orders that the dog should be buried precisely at midnight, since as he put it, “We’ll both be going into the ground at about the same time.”
Eight of the nineteen Lancasters did not return.
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I gulped at the $400 for about 30 minutes on a B17.
Lancasters to me were good looking planes.
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