AVRO Lancaster Heavy Bomber

AVRO's entry in the heavy bomber category was the last, and best, English heavy bomber of WWII. They flew more missions, and dropped a greater tonnage of bombs than all of the other English heavy bombers combined. The origins of the Lancaster came from the development of the AVRO Manchester bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Vulture engines. It wasn't long after the Manchesters made it into service in 1940 that it was realized the complex and under-powered Vulture engine would not suffice. Roy Chadwick, the designer, replaced the two Vulture engines with four Merlin engines and tested the aircraft. Voila! The Lancaster was born with superb handling characteristics, relatively high speed and the capability of hauling a heavy load over a long distance. If empty of bombs it could fly on one engine, although losing height. On two engines it could maintain level flight. It could be handled like a fighter aircraft, being able to dive sharply to over 400 mph. These characteristics helped a lot of bomber crews reach their targets and get home again.

The first Lancaster Is took to the air in October, 1941. Other than the engines it differed from it's progenitor in the adoption of a mid-upper and belly turrets. Soon the belly turrets were removed as they were at first useless for night flying. They would have been some use against German fighters equipped with upwards firing cannons in 1944. Lancaster I models fought throughout the rest of the war, although individually few made it to 100 operational sorties. A high production schedule of Lancasters soon meant that Merlin engines were in short supply (they were also used in Spitfires, Mosquitos, Halifax bombers and many other aircraft). This necessitated adopting an alternative power plant. The Lancaster I was fitted with the Bristol Hercules radial engine and renamed the Lancaster II. After a long testing program it went into operational service in March, 1943. The Mark II possessed good overall flying characteristics, but it never equalled the Merlin-powered model. The Hercules-powered aircraft had better takeoff, ascent and low altitude flight characteristics than the Lancaster Is, but they flew slower and used more fuel. The arrival of American-built Merlin engines (built under license by Packard) doomed the Lancaster II after a production run of 301 aircraft. The Packard Merlin-powered Lancasters were the III model, however, they were nearly identical to the I. There was also a Mark VII built by taking Mark Is and IIIs, adding a four-bladed propellor, and removing the nose and tail turrets. They were loaded with electronic jamming equipment. These were the special aircraft of No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group designed to fly in the bomber stream and jam the German electronic defences. Lancaster Xs were Lancaster Is built in Canada by the Victory Motor Works of Malton, Ontario. The Lancasters continued well into the 1950's with England, Canada, and Australia. A total of 7,366 Lancasters of all Marks were built.

Technical Details
The Lancaster I carried a crew of seven; pilot, flight engineer, observer/nose gunner/bomb aimer, navigator, wireless operator, mid-upper gunner, and tail gunner (see below). It was powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin XXIV, 12 cyl. V block, liquid-cooled engines of 1,620 hp each. It's maximum range, speed and bomb load were all dependant on each other. With a typical bomb load, it reached a maximum speed of 286 mph (462 km/h) , an ceiling of 24,671 ft (7,500 m) and a range of 2,527 miles (4,070 km). It carried eight 0.303 caliber machine guns, two in the nose, two in the upper turret and four in the rear turret. Total shells carried reached 14,000. The bomb load in 1941 was 8,000 lb. and could be a wide mixture of high explosive and incendiary bombs. It eventually reached 22,000 lb (a single Grand Slam bomb) with special modifications to strengthen the fusilage and removal of the bomb bay doors.

Bombaimer/Nose Gunner Pilot and Flight Engineer Navigator

Bomb aimer

Wireless Operator Mid-upper Gunner Tail Gunner

The Lancaster II carried the same crew members. It was powered by four Bristol Hercules VI, 14 cyl radial, air-cooled engines of 1,735 hp each. It had a maximum speed of 264 mph (426 km/h), a ceiling of 18,552 ft (5,640 m), and a range of 2,547 miles (4,103 km). Of course this all depended on the distance to the target, bomb load, etc. It carried the same armament as the Lancaster I. Due to it's abbreviated production span, the Mark II carried up to 14,017 lb (6,350 kg) of bombs in a wide mixture, it never carried the 22,000 lb. Grand Slam.

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Image From:
Lancaster: Copyright Canadian Department of Defence air photo archives.
Crew members: Lancaster at War.