The last two remaining airworthy Lancasters in the world join for a moving tribute to an age long gone.
The movie "Reunion of Giants" traces the flight of Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum Lancaster, VeRA, from Hamilton, Ontario to meet her British counterpart, Thumper—the only other airworthy Lancaster in the world—operated by the Royal Air Force in England.
There were many compelling aspects to this story including a blown supercharger during flight which threatened the future of one of the aircraft, the emotive recounting of stories from Bomber Command veterans and the recognition of bravery and sacrifice in an era that had an immense influence on the world.
A universal problem at many different levels of business, government and the services is pursuing actions that are unlikely to achieve a result. The following explanation takes a light-hearted look at the issue - The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that: “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, best strategy is to dismount" . However, in government and business organisations, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as: 1. Buying a stronger whip. 2. Changing riders. 3. Appointing a committee to study the horse. 4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses. 5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included. 6. Reclassifying the dead horse as ‘living-impaired’. 7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse. 8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed. 9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance. 10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance. 11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses. 12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses. And of course.... 13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position. If you don't understand this theory, you haven't lived long enough.
These pictures of the pre WWII Handley Page show a luxurious aircraft from a different era - and just look at the spacious seating arrangement! These aircraft flew much slower than today and only in daylight and fair weather because they predated instrument flying. But for 26 lucky passengers the experience was relaxed and comfortable. The HP-42 flew at just 100mph and at only a few thousand
feet so there was much to admire on a journey. Overnights were spent in luxurious hotels before heading off for the next stage of the journey. A trip from London to Capetown could take a week but there are no doubt many modern travelers who would swap that arrangement for modern "cattle car" expediency. Thanks to Peter Randell for the link to this story.
