Generate another 200 word product description to sell prints of Suchiu’s “Entering the Labyrinth” painting. Use this text from his book to help you write it:

 

There is a very special group of individuals, in my home area, who have taken it into themselves to help preserve an amazing piece of aviation history.

Their main focus is around the restoration of such iconic airplanes as the Avro Lancaster, WWII Stearman trainer bi-plane, the de Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk and they have even set forth to build a brand new De Havilland Mosquito fighter/bomber basically from scratch.

A few years back, this same group of historian heroes approached me to aid in their restoration fundraising efforts. Upon their request I painted the two Lancasters in this scene, each with a unique background story.

After the painting and prints were complete the group brought in two individual pilots whose aviation history was directly tied into each aircraft. They were brought to my studio to endorse the project by hand-signing the limited edition print series that was spawned off of the original oil painting.

We felt such pride and privilege having these men and their wives at our Essex gallery for the entire day. Through their unfettered conversations it began to sink in that our visit that day was with two people of profound historic significance in both Canadian and even USA aviation history.

Lieutenant-General Reg Lane flew a historic mission in the lower aircraft in my painting. The plane was known as The Ruhr Express and was the first Canadian-built war bound Lancaster to cross the North Atlantic to England and go into full service. Lieutenant Lane would become a wing leader and was renowned as one of the two leading Canadian bomber pilots of World War II.

This particular aircraft was designated to return back to Canada upon ending its term at war to be displayed at Canada’s National Aviation Museum.  Most unfortunately, on its final bombing mission it returned to base, blew a tire and slid off the runway and crashed. It was totally destroyed by an ensuing fire.

Lieutenant Lane flew over 100 missions including bombing runs attacking targets in Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Milan, and Turin. On one raid alone he returned to base with more than 100 bullet holes in his aircraft. Do yourself a favor and check out his huge tally of historic exploits I guaranty they will leave you amazed. Especially that fact that he did it all before turning 25 years of age!

One of the most notable characteristics of this Canadian super-hero in my book is that he was one of the funniest and most jovial men I have ever worked with, what a guy.

The painting I have produced of the two Lancasters shown here are of two distinct era’s. The plane on top is one that is presently being restored. This is the aircraft that presided atop a pedestal in Jackson Park in Windsor Ontario for many years.

I have heard that although that the plane will probably be 100% restored it may never reach a flight certification level. It has suffered significant corrosion damage from all the years of having been open to the environment while on its towering perch. Much of the corrosive damage came about because of the amount of birds that gained access to the airframe’s interior. The main spar suffered the most where the the birds had nested for decades, their acidic droppings being the damaging culprit. 

The plane’s still installed original power-plants are the lowest run-time Rolls Royce Merlin engines in the world. They are predicting that at least they will be able to taxi the Lancaster under its own power when the restoration is completed.

If you take a good look at the difference between the two aircraft in the painting you will notice that the Windsor plane on top has no gun turrets and the upper nose canopy is just a bubble and has no guns.

Windsor’s Lancaster FM212 – ch2a

This particular aircraft came into service after the end of World War II and flew most of its hours as a charting and mapping unit for the Canadian government. In fact it performed much of the mapping in the far northern reaches of Canada. It massed over 8000 hours of flight time and was retired from service in 1962. It was purchased in 1964 by the City of Windsor and one year later placed on a pedestal in Jackson Park as a memorial to those who served and died during WWII.

Our second guest of that memorable day was Don Rogers who was the original test pilot of this Lancaster. He later went on to become chief test pilot at Avro Aircraft Canada Ltd. There he worked alongside *Jan Zurakowski “Zura” from the beginning of the Avro Jetliner flight testing until after Black Friday and the infamous cancellation and destruction of the Avro Arrow project.

It has been an absolute privilege for me to have had the opportunity to work with these two men of such Canadian historic distinction. Both had offered significant input throughout the entire development of the Arrow as influential head management members. 

On the day Don and Lieutenant General Reg Lane joined us at our gallery. I was very surprised to learn that Don had also been secretly hired by none other than Howard Hughes personally to fly some top secret aircrafts at a hidden desert aircraft facility. He and his family were flown out there where they were treated like royalty by Howard for six months. Although I tried, he would not divulge any other information of that mysterious episode of his life as he had signed a nondisclosure agreement that he wished to honour even now after many decades had passed. People don’t seem to have those unwavering principles today, it was refreshing to meet a man of such high ethic. 

He had to have his Lancaster

At was at the gallery one Saturday afternoon and a young couple came in to tell me at sweet but sad story of how much my art is loved by their family

I remembered the beginning of the story as soon as they began to tell me about it but until then I had not known the outcome.

It started with them purchasing a framed “Entering the Labyrinth” print for one of the couple’s fathers. He had seen the painting and had fallen in love with it and as so many of my collectors do they ordered it as a gift for him for his birthday. He was very excited to hang it on his wall having been a Lancaster pilot himself.

Although this is common for collectors to purchase in advance knowing that they have to await production this story had a snag.

The father had been diagnosed with stage four cancer and had been informed that he had very little time to live. Shortly after his diagnosis he was bed ridden, we were told that he refused to hang any art in his room. I said he loved the painting so much that only the framed Lancaster piece would do.

So, the push was on to get this print done, signed and on his wall ASAP!  

The family told me, there was a big blank space on his wall that he had designated for the art piece.

It was decided at that point that we would get the print framed for him and on his wall even before the test pilots signed them as the art was the important part to him. 

The couple came in a few weeks later and told me that the father died the next morning after the art piece was hung in that special spot on wall. They told me that the day before when they were hanging it he said “I love it… wrap it up, I’m taking it with me”.

I know this is a sad story but it inspires me so much to know just how important one of my art pieces can be. 

LANCASTER HISTORY

Roy Chadwick

CBE MSc FRSA FRAES

1893 – 1947

Written exclusively for Suchiu by, Margaret Dove, Daughter of Roy Chadwick 1996

Roy Chadwick, the designer of the AVRO Lancaster, who has been described as ‘one’ of the two or three top designers of the twentieth century, was born in England, at Farnworth near Widnes, Lancashire.

He was the fifth generation of engineers in his father’s family. When he was fourteen, Roy Chadwick entered the British Westinghouse Drawing office in 1907; he also began studying at the Manchester College of Technology, at night, after work.

In 1909, Alliot Verdon-Roe, England’s pioneer airplane constructor and aviator opened his own company, A.V. Roe & Company Ltd. As his apprenticeship drew to a close at Westinghouse in December 1911, Roy Chadwick joined the firm, and A.V. Roe engaged him as his personal assistant. All the 500 AVRO series of airplanes, including the AVRO 504 of W.W.I passed through his hands, in the design stage.

Roy Chadwick soon became head of the design team and Chief Designer in 1918. He designed the Pike, the W.W.I Manchester, and the giant Aldershot, the world’s biggest single-engine bomber. Many variants of the plane followed. Also, many civil and military aircraft flowed from his drawing board. He designed the world’s first true light aircraft, the AVRO Baby, in 1919.

The 1920s and early 1930s saw Chadwick design such airplanes as the AVR Avian and Tutor. The Tutor was a trainer used by the Royal Air Force to train pilots for WWII.

In 1933 the AVRO 18, a welded steel tube, fabric-covered 16-seat plane, was soon converted for the RAF into the AVRO Anson, a light bomber and transport plane. Over 7000 were built. Many bomber crews were trained on Ansons in Canada.

Roy Chadwick received an Air Ministry specification in 1937 for a long-range, all-metal bomber of advanced conception, powered by two Rolls Royce Vulture engines. Chadwick’s intuitive, forward-thinking ensured that a huge bomb bay, capable of holding ten tons of bombs and mines, in any combination, was part of the design. Also, that the fuselage was made in five separate sections, for manufacture at different factories and for ease of assembly at Woodford, Avro’s giant assembly works in Cheshire. The machine was named the Manchester, and the prototype L7246 made its initial flight in July 1939, with squadron #207 receiving Manchesters in November 1940.

Immediately, it was obvious that the Vulture engines were inadequate, and Roy Chadwick, who had always wanted the Rolls Royce Merlin engines, and who had designed a four-engine version of the Manchester, showed the Air Ministry how he could lengthen the Manchester wing and install four Merlin engines. This was agreed upon, and the Lancaster was born.

The conversion was carried out between November 1940 and January 1941, and right away it was evident that the Lancaster was a highly successful airplane. Production followed rapidly, and AVRO had seven factories and 100 sub-contractors building Lancasters, thus employing 40, 000 persons. In the RAF, 35 squadrons were equipped with Lancasters, which could fly higher and penetrate deeper into enemy territory than any other contemporary machine and which could carry the heaviest loads.

There were over 200 draughtsmen and tracers in Roy Chadwick’s drawing office. Every week, he would go around the office and look at the work of each draughtsman. He could spot a mistake immediately and correct it. During the war, he designed far into the night on the myriad modifications incorporated into the Lancaster for various operations, including the Dam Buster raid in 1943.

Other aircraft designed by Chadwick include the Shackleton, York, Tudor, and Lincoln. He had left, in the hands of the Air Ministry, his last brilliant conception: the giant Delta Wing Bomber, the Vulcan, a front line RAF plane, for over thirty years.

In 1944, Manchester University made him an Honourary Master of Science, and the College made him an Associate in 1946.

Roy Chadwick met his untimely death on Saturday, August 23 1947 on a test flight of the AVRO Tudor II. An overnight servicing error resulted in the aircraft losing control and crashing soon after takeoff.

Roy Chadwick lived and died for aviation. His influence lives on in Delta design. His greatest hope was that the airplane would unite the people of the world.