Avro Lancaster & the Bomber Command Memorial

When the previous incarnation of the Pan 3Sixty website went live we quite a few enquiries asking what had happened to the 360° panorama we had created of Avro Lancaster KB889 based at IWM Duxford. Created in 2004, the 360° panorama was showing its age and the image quality was far removed from the work we were producing in 2014. It was therefore decided to remove the 360° panorama from from our portfolio, but in light of the enquiries, we later re-added it to our portfolio. We have decided to include the Lancaster panorama once again, but please note, is not representative of the quality of our work.

Photographing Avro Lancaster KB889

The panorama was created way back in 2004 whilst Pan 3Sixty was creating a 360° virtual tour of the American Air Museum at Imperial War Museum Duxford. During my visits to Duxford, I enquired about the possibility of photographing the interior of the Lancaster, and happily, the client obliged. I’ve  been interested in aviation for many years, but the Avro Lancaster holds a particular fascination for me, having the pleasure to know a veteran of Bomber Command who flew Wellingtons and then later Lancasters with 195 Squadron from Wratting Common in Cambridgeshire.

More recently, I created a 360° panorama of the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London, and feel the two panoramas reside nicely together. I hope people continue to enjoy viewing the Lancaster interior as much as I enjoyed photographing it. I hope too, you will take the time to visit the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund website.

If you are interested to read more about the Avro Lancaster and the men who flew them, I can highly recommend ‘Luck and a Lancaster‘ by Harry Yates DFC, ‘No Moon Tonight‘ by Don Charlwood and ‘Tail Gunner‘ by Chan Chandler DFC. Martin Middlebrooks books, ‘The Battle of Hamburg‘, ‘The Berlin Raids‘ and ‘The Nuremberg Raid‘ all come highly recommended and provide an insight into the air war from all angles, from Allied and Axis aircrew through to the military personnel and civilians on the ground.

Phil Giles
Photographer at Pan 3Sixty