Lancaster bomber Sheffield: Disappointment for World War Two plane's fans as Lanc fails to show

The aircraft had been expected to fly over parts of the city at around lunchtime on Saturday, just a couple of days after the 80th anniversary of the famous Dambusters raids, of 1943.

But sadly, the aircraft, based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire failed to make it to the city, where fans had expected it to pass over the east of the city.

No official announcements were made by the Battle of Britain memorial flight, but websites run by planespotters who follow the flight closely said that the aircraft had not been able to do its planned flights early on Saturday afternoon due to technical problems.

One enthusiast posted that it was a problem with a generator on board, that was discovered during power checks. It is understood repairs were later completed.

The Dambusters raid, the Lancasters' most famous mission, is famously linked to countryside near Sheffield, as the crews trained for the missions by flying practice runs over the dam at Derwent reservoir, just outside the city.

There was for many years a Damsbusters museum inside one of the dam’s towers, which closed several years ago. Plans were put forward to build a new museum nearby, but that has not yet happened.

The Dambusters raid was a famous RAF raid carried out in May 1943.

The plan was to use a specially designed ‘bouncing bomb’ that could be dropped from a modified Lancaster bomber and would bounce on the water before sinking at the base of German dams, exploding underwater and causing enough of a shockwave to blow a hole in the dam. They had to bounce to avoid torpedo nets placed under the water by the Nazis.

The water would then flood the industrial Ruhr valley.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson led 617 Squadron on the famous bombing mission, which was made into a film in the 1950s starring Richard Todd, who visited the previous Derwent museum in 2002, before it was closed.

The raids targeted the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams. Only the Sorpe dam remained intact after the raids.

In all, 133 aircrew in 19 Lancasters took off to bomb the dams. Of those, 53 men were killed and three became prisoners of war.