WINNIPEG — Young and old flocked to the Western Canadian Aviation Museum yesterday to catch a bit of history in flight.

Hundreds lined the grounds around the St. James museum and spaces nearby to catch a glimpse of the historic Second World War Avro Lancaster Mk X as it landed after flying in from Edmonton.

Visitors then had a chance to climb inside the historic war plane.

Winnipegger Don Skelly, who flew many missions on "Lancs" in the Second World War as a Royal Canadian Air Force bombardier-navigator with Ghost Squadron 428, wasn't going to miss his chance to see one in flight.

"It's a dandy," Skelly said. "For those of us who flew in Lancasters, it was the best plane that flew during the war. They had great range, they could take a lot of damage when you got hit and they could carry a big bomb load."

The Lancaster in town is the same type in which Winnipeg airman and posthumous Victoria Cross winner Andrew Mynarski was flying during a mission where he lost his life in France in 1944 less than a week after D-Day. The visiting bomber is known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in his honour.

"I'm probably the last guy from my squadron who is ever going to see a Lancaster fly," Skelly said. "I wanted to get out and see it for the last time."

The Canadian-made four-engine bomber was introduced in 1942 and retired in 1963. Lancasters flew 156,000 sorties during the Second World War, dropping over 608,000 tons of bombs.

Wayne Buchanan's brother Jack piloted Lancasters after the war when they were used for reconnaissance photographing throughout Canada.

"He loved this plane," Buchanan said. "He said it was easy to fly."

The plane, which belongs to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, is one of only two flying Lancasters in existence.

"This plane is very significant, not only to Winnipeggers, but to all Canadians," said museum executive director Shirley Render. "Thousands and thousands of Canadians served as air crew on Lancasters and many thousands of Canadians built the Lancaster. It was the plane that really made the difference, the plane that had the capability to go right into the heartland of Germany."

The Lancaster is scheduled to take off tomorrow at 11 a.m. and fly to North Bay. It is scheduled to fly into Jack Garland Airport sometime between 3 and 3:40 p.m. and will be on display at the Canadore College Aviation campus.