For those who came in late, I suggest reviewing image 30322 for background on Avro Lancasters in general, and this Lancaster in particular.

The problem with running an aviation museum is that dust is relentless. And with the Lancaster's wing area of 120.5 sqm (1,297 sq ft) (plus that of all the other aircraft), it's not like a quick go over with a feather duster will keep everything clean. You can almost feel the dust caked over the Lanc's glass cockpit here.

The raised canopy provided the pilot with an excellent field of view. The raised bubble at the rear was common among aircraft of this generation and would have been used for navigation. Beyond that we can see the dorsal turret, which was a bit further forward on the Mk VII model than some of its predecessors. (If you can't read the sign in the turret, it reads "HANDS OFF, DON'T MOVE".

The Lancaster did not have a pilot and co pilot side by side arrangement the way many of the American bombers had, which is why you see only one figure in the cockpit here. The plane was mostly operated by a single pilot, with a flight engineer sitting off to the right usually facing a bank of instruments on that wall, but able to sit on a fold down seat during takeoff and landing to assist the pilot.

The full crew was usually seven, with the others being:
* The navigator, who sat behind the pilot;
* The bomb aimer, who spent most of his time alongside the navigator but moved forward to make sightings to assist in navigation as well as working the front gun turret. During the bombing run he would go forward and guide the pilot toward the target.
* The wireless operator, who sat behind the navigator.
* The mid-upper (dorsal) turret air gunner.
* The rear gunner.

And the yellow spot behind the pilot's head? There has been a LOT of online discussion about that, but nobody knows for sure. It could be:
* A target for German fighter pilots to give them a sporting chance (never suggested seriously, I hope I didn't need to add);
* A chemical sensitive disk that would change colour if exposed to toxic chemicals;
* A marker indicating that this is a steel armour panel which could affect the magnetic compasses.

It's odd that nobody has a definitive answer on this, since it also appeared in the De Havilland Mosquito bomber. I suppose back in the day it was never fully documented because "everybody knows this", then one by one, ten by ten, a hundred by a hundred, everyone who did died off over the ensuing decades.

The third one – that it was to signify the presence of steel armour, seems to be the most credible, but anyone who knew for sure is now removed from us by about 80 years.

Behind the Lancaster we can see a bit more of the CAC-16 Wirraway that I discussed in image 3033.

If you're really sharp eyed, and if I've put up a large enough image wherever you're viewing this (and you're not viewing it on a phone) you'll see suspended above the Wirraway a scale model of a Bristol Beaufighter which served in the RAAF in an anti-shipping / torpedo bomber role. Without access to the original of the photo you'd really pushing it to see that the markings on that are LY-S, indicating that it's a model of a Beaufighter from 30 Squadron RAAF which carried out both anti shipping and ground attacks in New Guinea.

Addendum: My personal opinion is that Facebook is a sociopathic organisation that steals other peoples' intellectual property (including the images in this gallery) despite being explicitly denied permission to do so.