AVRO Lancaster

AVRO Lancaster, PA474 Demo of Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Rotterdam airport May 2007

2007 Livery 'Phantom of the Ruhr', a ton-up Lancaster that flew her first 30 ops on No 100 Squadron before completing a further 91 ops on No 550 Squadron. She sports the letters HR-W of 'The Ton' on her port side and BQ-B of 550 on her starboard, effectively commemorating the crews of both Squadrons.

Developing Nation:	United Kingdom
Manufacturer/designer:	AVRO
Task:	Heavy Bomber
First Flight:	January 9th 1941: Prototype May 13 th 1941: First production model prototype.
First Delivery:	December 24 th 1941 (at xmas eve) to No. 44 squadron (3x Mk I's)
First Mission:	March 3 rd 1942. On this day 4 Lancaster's of No. 44 squadron left at 6:15 pm to drop sea-mines at Helgoland. They returned at their base five hours later without problems.
Crew:	7: 1x nose gunner/bomber, 1x pilots, 1x flight engineer, 1x navigator, 1x wireless operator, 1x mid-upper gunner, 1x tail gunner
Wing Span:	31,1 m
Wing Area:	120,45 m²
Length:	21,1 m
Height:	5,97 m
Engine (s):	4x Rolls Royce of Packard Merlin XX (1460 hp)
Weight empty:	16344 kg
Max. Take off weight:	30872 kg
Max. Speed:	443 Kph at 4572 meters
Cruise Speed:	322 Kph at 4572 meters
Max. Range:	4072 km
Service ceiling:	6706 meters
Rate of climb:	6096 m in 41 minutes and 36 seconds.
Centerline hard point('s):	Only with Dam busters 1x
Weapons:	2x 7,7 mm Browning machine-gun in Nose 2x 7,7 mm Browning machine-gun at mid-upper 4x 7,7 mm Browning machine-gun in tail Normal Bomb-load: 6356 Kg. Dam buster bomb-load: 9988 kg.
Extra:	3544 Mk I's were built, the largest number of this aircrafts types.

Lancaster Short Fact's
Totally built:	7377
Total operational sorties:	156308
Total bombs dropped:	608612 tons
Lancaster's lost in action:	3249
Number of Lancaster's to complete more than 100 sorties:	35
Most sorties by one Lancaster:	139 (survived the war, scrapped in 1947)
Surviving:	Only 13 of every 100 aircrew was likely to survive a complete tour of 50 missions
Lancaster's in present time:	There are 16 Lancaster's remaining worldwide, only 2 are in flying condition.
Lancaster served in 9 nations:	Argentina Australia Canada Egypt France (Navy Reconnaissance) New Zealand Poland Sweden United Kingdom
Lancaster served The RAF:	From: December 24 th 1941 Until: December 1953.

Research : M. van Leeuwen