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Avro lancaster

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    Posted: November 07 2007 at 5:06am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cookie Monster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 5:07am

History:  When the United Kingdom's Bomber Command was given the difficult missions of destroying German dams in the Ruhr valley and sinking the pocket battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord, their aircraft of choice was the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. With four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines giving a top speed of 287 mph and a range of 1,660 miles, the Lancaster’s’ seven-man crew could provide a knockout punch with a typical load of 18,000 pounds of high explosive over the target. Along with the Handley Page Halifax, the Lancaster gave the UK the offensive striking power needed to penetrate German air defenses during World War II. As Winston Churchill instructed the Air Ministry in 1942, the UK must "…make sure that the maximum weight of the best type of bombs is dropped on [Germany] by the aircraft placed at their disposal."

Entering service at the beginning of 1942, the Lancaster’s design grew out of a failed predecessor, the Avro Manchester. While its’ airframe offered a stable platform for heavy bombing assignments, the Manchester’s twin engine design was inadequate to the task. By upgrading to four Merlins, the resulting aircraft met the nation’s needs and 7,366 Avro Lancasters were built during the war, the most of any British bomber. Armament included eight to ten Browning machine guns for fighter defense (depending on model variant) mounted in the nose, upper dorsal turret and the tail. Experience with a variety of bomb loads eventually led to adoption of the ‘Grand Slam’ 22,000-pound bomb, the largest carried by any aircraft in the war. For the dam-busting strike in May 1943, the Lancaster dropped British designer Barnes Wallis’s ‘bouncing bombs’ which skipped on the surface before impact. Wartime Lancaster sorties totaled about 156,000 during which roughly 608,000 tons of ordnance were dropped on the enemy.

As the war in Europe drew to a close, the Lancaster was readied for service against Japan as part of Bomber Command’s ‘Tiger Force’, but the war’s end put a halt to this plan. Apart from its primary bombing tasks, the versatile Lancaster was also used for maritime surveillance, photo reconnaissance missions and, later, as an engine test bed platform. The final airframe was delivered in February, 1946 but the plane flew for many years in civilian guise and as a warplane when sold to other nations. A number of Lancasters were preserved and still can be viewed at museums, but only two still fly under their own power to airshows -- one in Canada and one in the UK.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cookie Monster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 5:08am

Nicknames: "Lanc"

Specifications (Lancaster Mk I):
        Engines: Four 1,460 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin XX inline piston engines.
        Weight: Empty 36,900 lbs, Maximum Takeoff 68,000 lbs.
        Wingspan: 102 ft 0 in.
        Length 69 ft 6 in.
        Height: 20 ft 0 in.
        Performance:
            Maximum Speed at 12,000 ft: 287 mph
            Service Ceiling: 24,500 ft
            Range with 14,000 pound load: 1,660 miles
        Armament:
            Two 0.303-inch (7.7mm) guns in nose, ventral and dorsal turrets.
            Four 0.303-inch (7.7mm) guns in tail turret.
            Fourteen 1,000 pound bombs.
        Crew: 7

Number Built: 7,366

Number Still Airworthy:  Two

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Green Mist Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 5:34am
Savage plane, has real grace in the air. I used to build models of em when I was a nipper and had time on my hands. Theres a full one at the air museaum in Duxford UK and a part one in the Imperial War Museaum London, well worh a few hours!
 
Funny though, how the pale into secon place for design style by comparison to the Spitfire, now thats a plane!!
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hoadie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 6:23am
You can hear the lancaster coming a long way off.Theres NO mistaking those Merlins, boyo!!
She also carried the biggest payload of ANY allied bomber of WWII.The Sterling was the biggest bomber-but because of the spar midsection-it couldn't carry as much as the Lanc.Plus-with the radial engines Sterlings couldn't achieve the altitude required & suffered badly @ the hands of the Luftwaffe.
They converted some Lancs-post-war to airliners called:Lancastrian...& the final design built on that frame was the SHACKELTON.It saw service as Maritime & Arctic re-con.They were built/used into the 60's.(If memory serves)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hoadie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 6:26am
There is a restored HALIFAX sitting in the museum @ CFB Trenton.(I sent Al some info on it last fall) What a beauty!!They pulled her out of a Fjord in Norway,brought her back & restored her.They built the museum expansion around it - so she'll NEVER fly again.(what a shame
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hatchetman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 1:34pm
There is a sectioned Lanc sitting in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

It is amazing all the stuff they have at the AWM
But the winters coming,

And the snow will cover tracks,

And I'll be watching,

Because I'm hunting you



- Sarah Blasko, The Gardens End
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote airforcediver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2008 at 8:52am

The Halifax in Trenton is nice But the Lanc in Hammer town (Hamilton Ont) is incredible and I have had the privilege of working on it, an amazing experience. 

Post war Canada used Lancs for SAR, mapping the north, and a few were even used for ASW, 407 Sqn (My Sqn) had 12 of them and flew them up to 58/59 when when we took delivery of the Neptune, but thats another story entirely
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote thresher_593 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2008 at 11:24am
That's an awesome aircraft. I love old warbirds.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hatchetman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 26 2008 at 5:08pm
Well I will make sure to check out the Lanc in "Hammertown" when I am over there in February then. A mate of mine is at the uni there on a years exchange and I am visiting him on my travels. 
But the winters coming,

And the snow will cover tracks,

And I'll be watching,

Because I'm hunting you



- Sarah Blasko, The Gardens End
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote airforcediver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 27 2008 at 12:10pm

Hatchet, the the warplane museum is a really nice museum.  if your really into planes and WWII stuff a trip to Ottawa and the aviation museum and War museum are well worth it.

If all else fails call in a MOAB and call it a day
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hatchetman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 27 2008 at 5:35pm
If I go to Ottawa I may as well go to Montreal as well, although I don't speak a word of French.

Yeah I am pretty into my planes and military history, once upon a time I was an Air Force Cadet, and I had various Air Fix and Revel plastic models of WW2 aircraft hanging from my roof. 
But the winters coming,

And the snow will cover tracks,

And I'll be watching,

Because I'm hunting you



- Sarah Blasko, The Gardens End
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote airforcediver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2008 at 1:06pm
That's ok most of the people in MonT-ree-all don't speak french either.  And the museum's in Ottawa are plentiful and very nice.
If all else fails call in a MOAB and call it a day
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2008 at 2:16pm
The Lancaster in the AWM is G for George & was attached to 617 squadron . I had a Great uncle that was the head mechanic on her ,he has a swimming pool named in his honor in his hometown. He used to tell of the condition of the Plane & it's flight crew on their  return to England ,it was really terrible stuff ,but he also told of the ground crew getting revenge on the air crew by turning the spout from the Toilet on board which faced towards the rear of the Plane to face the front of the plane !!!!!!! During the War they flew her home to Auz to do a tour of the Country raising money for the War effort through War Bonds! He was able to accompany the Aircraft due to his position !

      Dave     
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote airforcediver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2008 at 1:41pm
That's awsome Dave, can't even begin to imagine how awsome that would have been. Ya we tend to do things like that to the aircrew on our plane to remind them that we may be NCO's but I can still make your life F%^$*#G! miserable. 
If all else fails call in a MOAB and call it a day
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 01 2008 at 4:54pm
My old man was a POW during WW2 ( wounded and captured in N Africa when Tobruck fell) When they brought him home he was on board a Lancaster. Awsome experience he spent the time chatting to the rear gunner after that he never flew again! I think it put him off looking through the plexiglass turret when the plane took off and landed. Big%20smile
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