All at Sea

[PR19_Kit]

I think an engine failing on the Manchester under most circumstances was dire.

I think a Manchester under most circumstances was dire............. 

[Logan Hartke]

  You have me there.  So, I think that we can all agree that the prospect of being in a Manchester taking off fully loaded from a short runway with the aid of a catapult and suffering an engine failure would be thoroughly bad.  That is just the sort of situation that life insurance was invented for.

Cheers,

Logan

[NARSES2]

You have me there.  So, I think that we can all agree that the prospect of being in a Manchester taking off fully loaded from a short runway with the aid of a catapult and suffering an engine failure would be thoroughly bad.  That is just the sort of situation that life insurance was invented for.

Cheers,

Logan

Most companies would turn you down  If they didn't what the heck would the premium be ? 

[The Rat]

If they didn't what the heck would the premium be ? 

If I had to guess I would say 'unaffordable'.

[rickshaw]

I think an engine failing on the Manchester under most circumstances was dire.

Cheers,

Logan

Depends if you have altitude.  If you do, you could always bail out.  Being catapulted, the only choice is to ride it in and with a full load of armed bombs on board?  I wouldn't like to think about collecting my pension. 

[Logan Hartke]

I think I'll take my chances landing my P-47 on a carrier, instead!

Cheers,

Logan

[NARSES2]

If they didn't what the heck would the premium be ? 

If I had to guess I would say 'unaffordable'.

Nah that's the standard rate for Car Insurance for under 28's in the UK 

[McColm]

I've heard stories that the Lancaster could fly on one engine, maybe the Manchester was underpowered.

[PR19_Kit]

I've heard stories that the Lancaster could fly on one engine, maybe the Manchester was underpowered.

I don't think there was any 'maybe' about it! Plus the Vulture reached new heights in failure rates.......

[The Rat]

I've heard stories that the Lancaster could fly on one engine, maybe the Manchester was underpowered.

It was, but not by intentional design. The Rolls-Royce Vulture was intended to be a very powerful engine, but development troubles meant that it never attained the power it was supposed to produce. If I recall correctly the ideal situation would have had one Vulture turning out almost the same power as two Merlins. Still, you would only have had two propellors, and that is going to mean a lot too. I would rather have 4 propellors with 1,000hp engines that 2 with 2,000hp engines.

[rickshaw]

I think I'll take my chances landing my P-47 on a carrier, instead!

Cheers,

Logan

I think you'd then have to worry about the carrier deck getting broken as you hit it!   

[rickshaw]

I've heard stories that the Lancaster could fly on one engine, maybe the Manchester was underpowered.

It was, but not by intentional design. The Rolls-Royce Vulture was intended to be a very powerful engine, but development troubles meant that it never attained the power it was supposed to produce. If I recall correctly the ideal situation would have had one Vulture turning out almost the same power as two Merlins. Still, you would only have had two propellors, and that is going to mean a lot too. I would rather have 4 propellors with 1,000hp engines that 2 with 2,000hp engines.

Wasn't the Vulture based on twin Peregrines?  I wonder if that might have been one of the root problems with the design.  I wonder whether using twin Merlins would have solved some of the design's problems?

[Logan Hartke]

I've heard stories that the Lancaster could fly on one engine, maybe the Manchester was underpowered.

There's also the little matter of a single engine failure on a Manchester being a 50% loss in power compared to only 25% on the Lancaster.

Cheers,

Logan

[The Wooksta!]

The Vulture was fine with the Hawker Tornado, the real problem was the lack of skilled staff in 1940 allocated to sort out the Vulture.  They had more pressing problems producing enough Merlins to stop Hitler's hordes kicking in the doors.  

Beaverbrook made sure enough staff were available to produce various key engines, specifically Merlins and Mercuries.  To ensure the latter, they took staff from Hercules development and machine tools.  And that to produce obsolete Blenheims when we desperately needed Beaufighters to stop the night blitz.