Lancaster cockpit created by 'mad genius' goes on display

Described by his family as a "mad genius", Léon Ellison spent decades crafting a close replica of a Lancaster bomber's cockpit in his garden workshop.

Léon died in 2024.

His dying wish was for his work to be gifted to Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre in Lincolnshire.

On Thursday, it arrived at its new home, witnessed by his son, Adrian, 57.

He said: "I am so proud and I think he would be as well if he could look down on us.

"He would be amazed that his creation has garnered so much attention."

Léon spent years researching the Avro Lancaster bomber, the type used in the famous Dambusters raid of World War Two.

His interest in the aircraft was stoked after watching the 1955 film of the raid.

Starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave, it depicted the 1943 sortie, which targeted German dams in the industrial Ruhr valley.

"He was a mad genius," said Adrian, referring to his late father.

"He was an electronics engineer, a physicist. He was an aviator in his own right."

RAF Metheringham, located nearby, was home to the Lancaster bombers of 106 Squadron from November 1943 until the end of the war.

"He had let us know in his wishes that he would like it to go to the museum so it could be appreciated by many and used also as an educational tool," Adrian said.

"Letting it go... it was very poignant. There was a lump in the throat as it departed.

"But I knew it was coming to the right place and seeing it here, it just looks as if it fits."

While the aircraft is currently a static exhibit, Adrian said the long-term ambition was to build a purpose-built Lancaster exhibition, with the cockpit brought to life as a fully functioning flight simulator, enabling visitors to experience, virtually, the Dambusters' raid.

The museum is now trying to raise £50,000 to bring the plan to fruition.

The Dambusters raids were launched from RAF Scampton, also in Lincolnshire.

Bomber Command paid a high price, with eight of the 19 bombers involved downed. Of the 133 members of the aircrew, 53 were killed and three captured.

Barry Walker, a trustee and volunteer at the airfield, said there were only two airworthy Lancaster bombers - one based at RAF Coningsby, which is operated by the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), and the other in Canada.

He said the replica "gives our visitors an opportunity to experience what it would have been like for the crews".

Barry also said the visitor centre had an extensive education programme where it regularly hosted youth groups.

"Our intention is to get the children onto the static exhibit to show them what it would have been like compared to modern aircraft," he added.

Sqn Ldr Paul Wise, from the BBMF, said the replica was a "double take" of its aircraft.

"The classic telltale for me, really, is when I jump onto the aircraft, my hands are going in exactly the right places of where they would on the real aeroplane," he said.

"I'm hoping that when the general public get to come on board this aircraft, this simulator, they will have the same feeling as we get every single time we climb on board our Lancaster."

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