Lancaster bomber being transferred from Edmundston to Edmonton

A Second WorldWar aircraft that has been a landmark near the Trans-Canada Highway between Edmundston and Quebec for more than 50 years is being moved out west.

Edmundston city council voted Tuesday night to transfer theaging Lancaster bomber to the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton, based on therecommendation of the EdmundstonSociety for the Preservation of the Lancaster.

The KB-882is one of 430 Lancasters built in Canada and one of only four still intact to have served over occupied Europe.

The local society hadbeen trying for 10 years to fund a restoration, but was unable to come up with enough money.

"It's a bittersweet feeling," spokespersonMychele Poitras said of the transfer. "We would have preferred that KB-882 stayed in Edmundston. But on the other side we found a museum who has the plans, who has the expertise, the funding to take care of her," she said.

Edmundston Mayor Cyrille Simard says people in the area will miss the Avro Lancaster, but realize it's for the best.

"The plane has been here for 50 years. Thepeople in community have been attached to it.So obviously we are not happy to see it [go]. But at the same time, in the condition that it was, we had to do something with it."

The bomber is expected to be takenapart so it can be shipped by rail the estimated 4,000 kilometres across the countryto the Alberta Aviation Museum, where it will then bereassembled and restored.