4-engined Avro Manchester? Yeah, I know...

[The Rat]

...it was called the Lancaster. The RR Vulture engine was a problematic beastie that led to the Manchester's demise, but like a phoenix from the ashes it was reborn with four RR Merlins and became the legendary Lancaster.  But...

What if the Vulture had been a success? Let's say that it actually did turn out the designed 1750hp, much more powerful than the 1000 or so horsepower of the early Merlins. And the RAF gets greedy. It decides to put 4 of them on the Manchester and produce a bomber with the collective power of a Lancaster that wouldn't exist until much later in the war, when the Merlin finally approached, and eventually surpassed, the first Vulture.

And what if the horsepower of the Vulture had progressed like the Merlin did? After a few years would we have seen frighteningly powerful chunks of metal that could have lifted a Manchester almost vertical?

My head is spinning like a Hamilton Standard prop, and it ain't just the gin. Really got the urge to make one. Does anyone make an after-market RR Vulture?

[McColm]

A company called HBM do a resin early Manchester MkI nacelle conversion set HBM72000a.

[zenrat]

Awesome idea.
All that extra power would mean you could gun it up like a B17.  I've always thought what the Lanc really needed was a Sperry style ball turret.

[Old Wombat]

Brit's conducting a successful day-night air-raid combo with 4-engined bombers before the USA even gets into the war, with each aircraft having a standard payload >13,000lbs.

[Captain Canada]

Cool idea Rat ! I can only imagine what they would be rated for if they had gone the way of the Merlin.

[tigercat]

Of course there is always the 6 engine version 

[Leading Observer]

Of course there is always the 6 engine version 

Wouldn't that necessitate it having much longer wings?

[Rheged]

I see your 6 engines and trump it (am I allowed to say that nowadays?)

http://dinger.byethost5.com/Aart.htm

Scroll down this page to the Avro 10 engined  bomber!

[PR19_Kit]

Of course there is always the 6 engine version 

Wouldn't that necessitate it having much longer wings?

And that's wrong? 

[Old Wombat]

I see your 6 engines and trump it (am I allowed to say that nowadays?)

http://dinger.byethost5.com/Aart.htm

Scroll down this page to the Avro 10 engined  bomber!

You'd need turrets out on the wings/wing-tips purely to protect the outer engines from nightfighters.

[tigercat]

I think the outer engines would be in a different time zone....

[NARSES2]

Of course there is always the 6 engine version 

Wouldn't that necessitate it having much longer wings?

Nope, just have two nacelles with a push/pull arrangement and the other two with push or pull mounts. 

I see your 6 engines and trump it (am I allowed to say that nowadays?)

http://dinger.byethost5.com/Aart.htm

Scroll down this page to the Avro 10 engined  bomber!

I'll settle for those Vicker's "Super Bomber" projects. Just wonder what a realistic date would have been for them entering service ?

You'd need turrets out on the wings/wing-tips purely to protect the outer engines from nightfighters.

A lot of the war time projects did just that 

[kitnut617]

I started a project some years ago where the idea was to revisit the Manchester theme by putting two very powerful engines on it, like RR 24 cylinder H-configured Eagle engines. That progressed into a Twin Manchester with three engines, and using Lincoln outer wings and fuselage parts.

Unfortunately, the planning stage was all it got to, plus gathering all the parts to do it and there it sits in the pile of "To Do" projects.

I'm going to call it an Avro Chadderton

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,20781.15.html

[NARSES2]

Interesting project

[The Rat]

A company called HBM do a resin early Manchester MkI nacelle conversion set HBM72000a.

Looked around, they seem to be rarer than the proverbial hen's teeth.