Dream comes true: Halifax boy rides high in WWII Lancaster bomber

With a big smile and a dramatic salute,Euan MacDonaldclimbed up the stairs into the WW II era Lancaster bomber to fulfilla dream.

His dreamed-about flight on Hamilton's restoredAvro Lancaster cameon Saturday, with money he collectedthroughonline donations.

The eleven-year-old launched a GoFundMe campaign earlier this year to help him get together the $3,500 it costs to ride the Lancaster.

"It means everything to me. This is what I've worked for and so many people have helped me do," he told CBC News before boarding the bomber, one of only two still flying in the world.

Afterward, he said theflight waseven better than he imagined.

• 10-year-old crowdfunding his dream of a flight in Lancaster bomber

The flight left from the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport atMount Hope Airport at 2 p.m. and cruised by the Toronto skyline and then down to Niagara Falls before coming back, taking about an hour in total.

Euan and his family are from the Halifax area, but he came across the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum online. Reading that its Lancaster bomberwasstill in flying condition, he was determined to make it happen for himself.

"I want to know what it feels like to be on a World-War Two bomber that is past its prime but it survived up to this day,"Euansaid at the time. "I'mgonnabet that nothing is going to compare to flying in this thing."

But $3,500 is a lot of money for a kid.

"We thought he'd have to wait until he was grown up, with a job," said Anne-Marie McElrone, Euan's mom. She stood nearby as the historic war plane fired up its 4 giant engines and began its taxi toward the runway with an excited Euan inside, waving from the cockpit.

Hamilton's Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is home to one ofworld's last Avro Lancaster bombers still in flying condition.

Hundreds of Lancasters were sent on dangerousbombing missions in Europe during the Second World War, and crews had a low survival rate. After being restored nearly 30 years ago, the Lancaster has become an iconic sight (and sound) in Hamilton.

dave.beatty@cbc.ca | @dbeatty