What the Flying Fortress was for the USAF, that was the AVRO Lancaster for the RAF.
The RAF Lancasters flew the night missions in the second World War to Germany. It was a dangerous job, only 13 of every 100 aircrews were likely to survive a complete tour of 50 missions.
| Developing Nation: | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer/designer: | AVRO |
| Task: | Heavy Bomber |
| First Flight: | January 9th 1941: PrototypeMay 13 th 1941: First production model prototype. |
| First Delivery: | December 24 th 1941 (at xmas eve) to No. 44 squadron (3x Mk I’s) |
| First Mission: | March 3 rd 1942. On this day 4 Lancaster’s of No. 44 squadron left at 6:15 pm to drop sea-mines at Helgoland. They returned at their base five hours later without problems. |
| Crew: | 7: 1x nose gunner/bomber, 1x pilots, 1x flight engineer, 1x navigator, 1x wireless operator, 1x mid-upper gunner, 1x tail gunner |
| Wing Span: | 31,1m |
| Wing Area: | 120,45m |
| Length: | 21,1m |
| Height: | 5,97m |
| Engine (s): | 4x Rolls Royce of Packard Merlin XX (1460 hp) |
| Weight empty: | 16344kg |
| Max. Take off weight: | 30872kg |
| Max. Speed: | 443Kph at 4572 meters |
| Cruise Speed: | 322 Kph at 4572 meters |
| Max. Range: | 4072km |
| Service ceiling: | 6706 meters |
| Rate of climb: | 6096 m in 41 minutes and 36 seconds. |
| Centerline hard point(‘s): | Only with Dam busters 1x |
| Weapons: | 2x 7,7 mm Browning machine-gun in Nose2x 7,7 mm Browning machine-gun at mid-upper4x 7,7 mm Browning machine-gun in tailNormal Bomb-load: 6356 Kg.
Dam buster bomb-load: 9988 kg. |
| Extra: | 3544 Mk I’s were built, the largest number of this aircrafts types. |
Lancaster Short Fact’s |
|
| Totally built: | 7377 |
| Total operational sorties: | 156308 |
| Total bombs dropped: | 608612 tons |
| Lancaster’s lost in action: | 3249 |
| Number of Lancaster’s to complete more than 100 sorties: | 35 |
| Most sorties by one Lancaster: | 139 (survived the war, scrapped in 1947) |
| Surviving: | Only 13 of every 100 aircrew was likely to survive a complete tour of 50 missions |
| Lancaster’s in present time: | There are 16 Lancaster’s remaining worldwide, only 2 are in flying condition. |
| Lancaster served in 9 nations: | Argentina
Australia Canada Egypt France (Navy Reconnaissance) New Zealand Poland Sweden United Kingdom |
| Lancaster served The RAF: | From: December 24 th 1941Until: December 1953. |
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