Avro Lancaster |
Type
| Heavy bomber
| Manufacturer
| AV Roe & Sons
| Designer
| Roy Chadwick
| Maiden flight
| January 1941
| Introduced
| RAF - 1942
| Retired
| Canada - 1963
| Primary users
| RAF
| Number built
| 7,377
| Variants
| Avro Lancastrian - interim transport conversion
| Avro Lincoln - heavy bomber development Avro York - transport derivative | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The Aircraft On Display
The model in the possession of the Museum is a Mk VII, serial no NX 622, currently on display in WWII squadron colours. This aircraft was manufactured in May 1945 and did not see active service in WWII, flying with the RAF for only 7 hours before being converted in 1951 to a maritime reconnaissance aircraft for the French Navy.In 1962 it was retired from service and donated to the Air Force Association. It was displayed in the open at Perth Airport (See the photo in the set above) until the opening of the Museum, being moved into the North Wing on March 17th 1983. It has undergone extensive restoration since that time.
Type History
The Avro Lancaster has its origins in the shortcomings of its predecessor, the Avro Manchester. The Manchester was a heavy bomber designed to UK Air Ministry Specification P.13/36, and was to use two of the new 24-cylinder Rolls Royce Vulture engines. These engines used an "X" layout, rather than the "V" of most 12-cylinder engines, but had severe reliability problems. As a result, only about 200 were built.Roy Chadwick, Avro's chief designer, responded to the problem, replacing the Vultures with four of the less-powerful Merlin engines, and increasing the wing area. The modification was a success from the start, the change to the bomber's performance being so large that the its name was changed, from Manchester Mark III to Lancaster Mark I.
The Mark I was followed by the Mark II with Bristol Hercules radial engines, which was not a successful modification, and the Mark III with US-built Packard Merlins. The Lancaster Mark IV, first flown in June 1944, was characterised by a lengthened fuselage and increased wingspan, a change so large that it was renamed the Avro Lincoln Mark I - and so marked the effective end of the Lancaster's development. Other Lancaster marks, such as the Canadian-built Mark X, were minor modifications of the Mark III.
The Mark VII, of which the Museum's aircraft is an example, was the final production version, with the dorsal turret moved slightly forward, and the tail turret's four 0.303 inch machine guns replaced by two of 0.5 inch calibre. This mark was designed to be more suitable for operation in the tropics, as part of "Tiger Force", the British contribution to the invasion of Japan (and so never being required).
The performance and load-carrying capacity of the Lancaster meant that it was chosen for many "special" operations, such as the Dam Buster raids on the Rhine Valley dams in 1943, pathfinder operations marking targets for the main bomber force, and daylight precision bombing raids using the large "Tallboy" (11,000 pound) and "Grand Slam" (22,000 pound) bombs.
The "Lanc" or "Lankie," as it became affectionately known became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, reputedly "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties".
Specifications
General characteristics
| Crew
| 7: pilot, flight engineer, navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator, mid-upper and rear gunners
| Length
| 69 ft 5 in (21.18 m)
| Wingspan
| 102 ft (31.09 m)
| Height
| 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
| Wing area
| 1,300 ft2 (120 m)
| Empty weight
| 36 828 lb (16,705 kg)
| Loaded weight
| 63,000 lb (29,000 kg)
| Powerplant
| Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines, 1,280 hp (954 kW) each
|
| Performance
| Maximum speed
| 240 knots (280 mph, 450 km/h) at 15,000 ft (5,600 m)
| Range
| 2,300 nm (2,700 mi, 4,300 km) with minimal bomb load
| Service ceiling
| 23,500 ft (8,160 m)
| Wing loading
| 48 lb/ft2 (240 kg/m2)
| Power/mass
| 0.081 hp/lb (130 W/kg)
| Armament
| Guns
| 8, 0.303 in (7.70 mm) Browning machine guns in three turrets
| Bomb load
| Maximum: 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) | Typical: 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) | |||