{"id":255979,"date":"2025-07-11T10:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T10:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/255979\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T10:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T10:51:09","slug":"work-on-bomber-county-gateway-trusts-on-freedoms-wings-lancaster-bomber-sculpture-project-is-nearing-completion-by-lincolnshire-based-timmins-engineering-and-construction-ltd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/255979\/","title":{"rendered":"Work on Bomber County Gateway Trust\u2019s ‘On Freedom’s Wings’ Lancaster bomber sculpture project is nearing completion by Lincolnshire-based Timmins Engineering and Construction Ltd."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A landmark sculpture \u2014 billed as the Midlands\u2019 answer to the Angel of the North \u2014 is nearing completion thanks to a dedicated team of engineers.<\/p>\n

The On Freedom\u2019s Wings project will see a full-scale sculpture of a Lancaster Bomber erected on the border of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to mark the historic link that the counties shared with RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

Organised by the Bomber County Gateway Trust,<\/a> once complete the sculpture will stand at 29m tall, weighing approximately 100 tonnes.<\/p>\n

\"TimminsTimmins Engineering and Construction’s design manager, Luke Handford, helped design the On Freedom’s Wings’ sculpture<\/p>\n

The team at Timmins Engineering and Construction Ltd have been responsible for bringing the vision to life<\/a> in their Lincolnshire-based workshop, offering their services almost entirely free of charge.<\/p>\n

Timmins\u2019 design manager, Luke Handford, said: \u201cSeeing it from the initial stages to where it is now is incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought our part was done when the substructure was complete, but we\u2019ve really pushed ourselves as an engineering firm to create something beautiful and aerodynamic<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all, our bread and butter is buildings, not World War Two bombers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cEverything about this is massive, and it\u2019s been an incredible achievement from everyone involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly proud of all the work that have gone into it \u2014 it\u2019s a definite career high, and probably the best thing we will ever create as individuals or as a company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the final push now and we\u2019re looking forward to the moment when we can finally take it to the site, put our name on it and say \u2018we did that\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done something for the county and the country as a whole that people will look at and admire for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA 3D model of what the ‘On Freedom’s Wings’ Lancaster bomber sculpture will look like on its support struts. Photo submitted: Timmins Engineering and Construction.\"SupportSupport beams for the On Freedom’s Wings memorial\"MainMain fuselage of the ‘On Freedom’s Wings’ Lancaster bomber sculpture showing where the completed wings will be bolted into place. Photo: Newark Advertiser.<\/p>\n

The sculpture is made up of two parts \u2014 the internal structure providing strength, and the exterior shell which gives the Lancaster its iconic shape.<\/p>\n

A ribbed design has been chosen to allow air to flow through the sculpture once it is in place on the Norton Disney hillside, visible from the A46.<\/p>\n

Over time the shiny steel shell will weather with the elements, taking on an oxidised finish.<\/p>\n

Workshop manager Adrian Crosby has been leading on the main fabrication work, which has almost entirely been done voluntarily between the firm\u2019s other paid work.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI can quite confidently say that I have experienced every emotion known to man working on this project.<\/p>\n

\"PartPart of the tail section of the ‘On Freedom’s Wings’ Lancaster bomber sculpture. Photo: Newark Advertiser.\"RearRear fuselage of the ‘On Freedom’s Wings’ Lancaster bomber sculpture. Photo: Newark Advertiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it felt a bit overwhelming, but we were excited to get started, then it was nerve-wracking as we assembled it for the first time<\/a>, and relieved that it all fit together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has certainly been a challenge, with a lot of head scratching trying to make it work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut after years of work, this is the nice bit now \u2014 ribbing it and giving it shape, we\u2019re starting to get a lot of \u2018wows\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt changes from every angle you look at it, and once it\u2019s up there [on the supports] it will almost look like its flying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve put a lot of free labour into this, with people giving up their spare time and coming in on weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud to have been involved because this is an opportunity that won\u2019t come along again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team is now working flat out to finish the rib work, with hopes that the sculpture can be lifted onto its support struts in September \u2014 weather permitting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A landmark sculpture \u2014 billed as the Midlands\u2019 answer to the Angel of the North \u2014 is nearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,609,13738,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-255979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-newark","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114834223077386024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}