Avro Manchester, Lancaster, Lancastrian, Lincoln, Shackleton

[Mossie]

I remember a guy demonstrating a process to me using a nasty chemical soloution.  Not far off retirement, couldn't understand all this health & safety crap.  Cut corners, suceeded in covering my head in said nasty chemical.  Luckily I was wearing a face shield so didn't get it in the eye or mouth, or I might be tapping this out on braille keyboard, not to mention any respiratory problems & possibly cancer in the future.  Tw*t.

[raafif]

bad work practices ...
5 years ago on a warbird bomber -- it had a dent in the tail underside, right on a frame.  "I know it all" owner (no quals) insisted that engineer just get a drift & hammer it out.
The engineer tried to argue the correct way to fix it then wisely let himself get fired instaed of continuing to work there.

[raafif]

During WW2 only a few countries flew Lancasters -- Britain (with crews from UK, Canada, Australia & Sth Africa), Canada itself, Russia (three) and Germany (one aircraft).

Postwar several countries flew the Lancaster -- Britain, Canada, France (naval Aeronvale), New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Egypt, Argentina & Pakistan. Only Three countries later flew the Lincoln -- UK, Australia & Argentina (three aircraft, one of which had the early Lancaster-style nose).

Russia
Three RAF aircraft, of the several that flew to Russia on the first leg for the attack on the Tirpitz in Norway, crashed on landing in Russia. Two were repaired & flown for a short time.

Germany
only 5 Avro Lancasters that could possibly be flown again fell on German occupied soil. Four were belly-landed and one reportedly landed wheels-down (reports from returning PoW crews, Resistance & Luftwaffe).

Only one was repaired & flown as this type had no secrets to offer -- it was used in night-fighter radar trials. Captured bombers often flew in their standard colours, but with large crosses, until a major service justified a repaint -- until then, they also often retained their RAF squadron-codes. According to the Luftwaffe test-pilot who flew it, the profile below is how it looked ...


Here is how it may have looked if flown in full "High-Vis" scheme (same as the captured Stirling later in its Luftwaffe career) ...


Whiffing ...
my "Lancaster in Japanese service" thread here ...  http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,24041.0.html

in Italian service ...
after the '43 armistice the Rega Aeronautica gets surplus war-weary Lanc B.1's ... some fly with the Allies against Germany .... painted in the "smoke-ring" scheme.


others had the smoke-rings filled-in ...


while others are used to patrol their African colonies, Eritrea & Somalia ...


In the late 1950's, they fly against incursions by "liberation" rebels from French Morocco & surrounding areas.
The Lancasters were superceded by Lincoln "LRP" patrol aircraft based on the Australian-built long-nose version ...


The Lincolns were also used for Mediterranean patrols, intercepting refugees heading across from Africa.


Doing other Lincolns with tip-tanks & maybe a life-boat, any other ideas ??

another Lancaster thread here ... http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,18854.0/highlight,lancaster.html

[Weaver]

Interesting profiles! 

Since Lancaster/Lincolns (can't remember which) saw action in Kenya post war, how about the RAF left some behind for the Kenyan Airforce?

[Arc3371]

Lincolns in both Kenya and Malaya, nice profiles but white crosses are probably a bad idea if they areflown by an allied Italy (too easily mistaken )

[raafif]

but white crosses are probably a bad idea if they are flown by an allied Italy (too easily mistaken )

yeah, but circles are a little bit harder for me to do & are a bit boing (apart from the Tasmanian A.F. -- Tassie Tiger in an apple green roundel)

[NARSES2]

I like the Italian Lancs/Lincolns, fits in with my post war scenario where Italy keeps the Monarchy at the referendum and also is alowed to keep Tripolatania

[raafif]

along with the Mosquitoes, Beaufighters & later, Vampires, the Dominican Republic receives some Lincolns ...


Later they are camouflaged ...



After independence Nigeria remains part of the Commonwealth & uses a few Lancasters that were left behind ....


same for Kenya ...


that's it for me ... I'm all Lanc-ed--out for now

[Mossie]

I just wandering the web after looking for stuff on the Shackleton when Lee posted a rumour about Tumpeter doing a Shack.  I was looking for pics of the mock up instalation of the Napier.  On the Key Publishng forum, I found a pic of the Napier Nomad mounted on the Lincoln testbed, but not the Shack with dummy wing mounted Nomads.



Does anyone have a pic of the Shack with Nomads?  Also on that page, I found the following snippets:

Interestingly, the Nomads would have required both new/additional cooling and fuelling systems. Avro was even planning an MR5 with four Nomads. Yet another projected Shak variant was to have used Wright Cyclone Radials.

The Nomad idea was certainly for long endurance, but also because the projected phase updates would see the Mk.3 struggle with Griffons, hence the Viper upgrade in the other thread! SAAF Shacks never had the updates, hence they didn't require extra power.
The Mk.2 had an AUW of 86,000Ib, the final Mk.3s were operating at AUW110,000Ib, and the Mk.4 would have had 133,000 AUW.
The originaly proposed Mk.4 was to have four Nomads, but that later changed to Wright Cyclones.
Apparently RAF aircrews were mightily relieved that they wouldnt have to spend any longer in the aircraft than the maximum 18hrs that they were anyway!
The Shack/Nomad cooling systems were very neat, just using slits in the wing leading edge to feed the radiators.

[GTX]

Does anyone have a pic of the Shack with Nomads?

As I understand it, the trial conversion was never completed, so there probably aren't any pics other than possible artists impressions.

Regards,

Greg

[kitnut617]

From what I understand the Nomad was an option for the Shackleton MR.4

[Mossie]

Does anyone have a pic of the Shack with Nomads?

As I understand it, the trial conversion was never completed, so there probably aren't any pics other than possible artists impressions.

Regards,

Greg

Greg, the Key Publishing forum thread  I mentioned has a link to a pic, but it's broken, also somone mentions it's in a book on the Shackleton byt Chris Ashworth.  Link I forgot to add earlier:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=75095

From what I understand the Nomad was an option for the Shackleton MR.4

Thanks Robert, that's very interesting & good to see the proposed R.3350 instalation.

[Gondor]

A soviet one could be a torpedo bomber....two mounted under the fuselage and one under each wing.
Hey....some great possibilities.  

Why put the torpedo's under the wings? The Lancaster was designed from the Manchester which had the carriage of two torpedo's in the bomb bay as part of the design specification. Look at the SAM Publications Modellers Data File number 4 which has that info in it.

Gondor

[tigercat]

What about a Napier Eland engined Shackleton

[GTX]

Greg, the Key Publishing forum thread  I mentioned has a link to a pic, but it's broken, also somone mentions it's in a book on the Shackleton byt Chris Ashworth.  Link I forgot to add earlier:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=75095

You can have a look at the website mentioned here.

The only pics shown of proposed Shackleton MR.4 is that of the proposed R.3350 installation (see here).  There is a description of the Napier Nomad installation though - see here.

Regards,

Greg