Lancaster Flight UK

Lancaster Flight UK isn’t a flying school. It’s something more unusual: a full-size Avro Lancaster cockpit near Shaftesbury, built to wartime configuration and turned into a working flight simulator. The owners describe it as the world’s first WWII Lancaster simulator to use genuine Avro flight controls under a 1944 canopy, with original equipment and working gauges throughout.

You don’t need any flying experience. A qualified pilot sits beside you for the whole flight, or you can leave the flying to them and ride along as crew. Sorties include a low-level bombing run along the Fleet behind Chesil Beach, a night flight out of RAF Scampton, and several Dambusters routes over the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams. The Dambusters flights follow the routes of David Maltby and Les Knight and are based on copies of the original navigators’ logs. Bespoke flights can also be arranged.

Each visit starts over coffee, followed by a tour of the period briefing room, with original wartime charts and Air Ministry furniture, and the Link Trainer room. The Link Trainer, the instrument trainer wartime aircrew learnt on, can also be flown in VR. Then comes a look round the aircraft, the flight and a short debrief.

Bookings are made directly with Andy Sturgess, who runs the simulator up to two days a week. First contact is by email, and gift vouchers are available.