Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. Developed by Avro from the twin-engined Manchester, whose engines had proved unreliable, it first flew in January 1941 and became the Royal Air Force's principal heavy bomber, carrying the largest bombs in the RAF's wartime inventory and flying the celebrated dams raid of May 1943. Some 7,377 were built in Britain and Canada. After the war the type served on in reconnaissance and maritime roles, in Canada into the 1960s, and two aircraft remain airworthy today.
Why It Mattered
No British aircraft is more closely identified with the bomber offensive of the Second World War than the Lancaster. Some 7,377 were built, and from 1942 it was the Royal Air Force's principal heavy bomber. Its bomb bay could take the largest bombs the RAF used, up to the 22,000 lb Grand Slam. One operation fixed the type in public memory: the attack on the Ruhr dams in May 1943 by the specially formed No. 617 Squadron.
Design Notes
The Lancaster was Avro's answer to a failed predecessor: the twin-engined Manchester, underpowered, whose Vulture engines proved to be unreliable in service. Roy Chadwick, Avro's chief designer, kept elements of the Manchester fuselage but gave the aircraft a new, longer wing carrying four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. A long, unobstructed bomb bay ran beneath the centre section, the feature that let the aircraft take the RAF's largest bombs. The production aircraft's twin tail, its fins elliptical, became one of the type's recognition marks.
Operational History
No. 44 Squadron was the first unit fully equipped with Lancasters, and flew the type operationally over Heligoland in March 1942. Production in Canada added 430 Lancaster Mark Xs, built by Victory Aircraft at Malton between 1943 and 1945. On the night of 16–17 May 1943, Wing Commander Guy Gibson led the specially formed No. 617 Squadron against three dams in the Ruhr valley. The squadron's weapon was Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb, designed to skip across the reservoir, sink against the dam wall and explode at its base. The Möhne and Eder dams were breached and the Sorpe damaged, at the cost of eight aircraft and 53 of the 133 aircrew who took part. The raid's effect on German industrial production was limited, but it gave a significant boost to morale in Britain. No. 617 Squadron spent the rest of the war as a precision-bombing unit; in November 1944 its Lancasters sank the German battleship Tirpitz. In the war's last months, Lancasters also dropped the 22,000 lb Grand Slam earthquake bomb, the largest in the RAF's wartime inventory, on hardened targets.
Afterlife
The Lancaster remained in RAF service after the war, in maritime and reconnaissance roles; the last of them, a reconnaissance aircraft, is believed to have been retired in late 1954. Canada kept the type in service longer: the RCAF's Lancasters were retired ceremonially at Downsview, Toronto, in April 1964. Seventeen Lancasters survive around the world. Only two are airworthy: PA474, flown by the Royal Air Force's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and Canada's FM213, flown as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster.