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The Manchester entered RAF Bomber Command service with No. 207 Squadron in November 1940. It flew its first operational mission on 24–25 February 1941 in a raid on the French port of Brest and it’s U-boat submarine pens. The 193 operational Manchesters flew 1,269 operations with Bomber Command, dropping 1,826 tons (1,657 tonnes) of bombs and losing 63 aircraft in action, flying its last operation against Bremen on 25 June 1942.[6] Of the 78 aircraft lost, 45 were non-operational losses of which 30 involved engine failure. In total 209 Manchesters entered service, before production finished in November 1941. Eight RAF bomber squadrons were equipped with Manchesters. They were also used by Coastal Command.
Avro's chief designer, Roy Chadwick worked on the Manchester, Mk III variant. It was a radical rethink on the original design. It first flew on 9 January 1941. Many design changes had been made to try and fix the faults of the early marks of the Manchester bomber. It was in reality the first Lancaster. It was powered by four Merlin engines and had an increased wingspan. Initially it retained the three fins and twin outboard rudders. The central fin had no movable control surface. It received the "Lancaster" name after its first flight when it proved to be a great improvement on the Mk I and MK II Manchester bomber. On the second prototype Lancaster the central rear fin was removed and a wider span tailplane and larger elliptical twin fins were used.
In the early years of the war the production of fighters was given priority and they also used the Merlin engines. Because of the lack of Merlin engines some of the ‘lancs’ were produced with Bristol hercules engines. These were called Lancaster B Mrk II. Only 300 of these stop gap variants were made. The letter B stands for bomber. A total of 7,377 Lancasters of all marks were built throughout the duration of the war, each at a 1943 cost of £45-50,000
The Lancaster Night Heavy Bomber had a crew of seven this included a pilot, flight engineer, navigator, wireless operator, front gunner, mid-upper and rear gunner. The Lanc’s armament comprised of eight .303 inch (7.7mm) Browning machine guns in three turrets. It had a maximum normal bomb load of 14,000 lb (6,300kg) or 22,000 lb Grand Slam with modifications to bomb bay. The Lancaster bomber had a maximum speed of 280mph at 15,00 feet (450km/h at 5,600m). It had a range of 3,000 miles (4,600km) and a service ceiling of 23,500 feet (8,160m). It was retired from service in 1963 but you can still see a Lancaster of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly over the skies of Britain at airshows.
The first operational mission by the new Lancasters bombers was a mine laying operation on the night of 3/4 March 1942 by RAF 44 Squadron. Four Lancasters took part, led by Squadron Leader John Nettleton. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the first major sortie undertaken using the New Lancaster bombers. It was an attack on Augsburg on 17 April 1942. A joint expedition by 44 and 97 Squadrons. The target was submarine diesel engine works in southern Germany. The raid was at low level in broad daylight. Of the 12 Lancasters that took part in the raid, only 5 returned. RAF Bomber command soon realized that the losses were too high on day light missions. The switch was made to night bombing raids. You had more chance of being killed as aircrew of a WW2 bomber than being in the infantry. Out of every 100 aircrew only 13 would live to complete a tour of 50 operations.
Most people with an interest in History and WW2 have heard of the Dam Busters raid immortalised in film. The bombing raid was in 1943, codenamed Operation Chastise. It was designed to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley and cause havoc by flooding this industrial area. The operation was carried out by 617 Squadron in modified Lancaster Mk IIIs carrying special drum shaped bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis, the brilliant engineer who had designed the Wellington Medium Bomber. Another famouse raid also made into a film was the sinking of the Tirpitz. Lancaster attacks using Tallboy bombs against the formidable German battleship Tirpitz, first disabled and later sank the ship. After the war Lancasters were used during the Berlin Airlift to bring needed supplies to the cut off city at the beginning of the Cold war.
World War Two Lancasters flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 608,612 long tons (618,378 tonnes) of bombs between 1942 and 1945. Just 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations, and was scrapped in 1947.
A.V.Roe & Co Ltd (AVRO) -
Alliot Verdon Roe (Founder of the AVRO WW1 fighters) built his first plane in Putney, South West London in 1907. A prize of £2,500 (over a million pounds in today's money) was offered for the first flight around the famous Brooklands Motor Racing Track. The first engine he fitted, a 6hp JAP engine was not powerful enough. He fitted a more powerful 24hp engine in May 1908. Roe used a tow rope attached to cars to test his flying machine along the finishing straight of the race track. In June 1908 he managed to get 150 feet into the air. Alliot Verdon Roe was the first British Subject to leave the ground in an aeroplane of his own design. The original aircraft was destroyed in a sudden gust of wind very soon after its first flight. A.V.Roe carried on designing aircraft and formed A.V.Roe & Co Ltd (AVRO) in 1910. The company produced many excellent fighters and bombers. The most famous being the Dam Busting RAF AVRO Lancaster four engined heavy bomber. Hawker Siddeley merged with the company and they themselves became part of British Aerospace. This airworthy replica and exact copy of Roe's wooden workshop shed were built by the staff of the Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, England
These aircraft photographs are great reference sources if your painting 1/72 scale, 1/48 scale or 1/24 scale plastic model airplane Airfix, Tamiya, zvezda, revel, Pavala aircraft kits or you’re into flying and painting radio RC controlled model planes.
There are many aviation books published about the AVRO Lancaster long range RAF Bomber Command heavy bomber pictures
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