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Lancaster

3K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  whiterider 
#1 ·
Driving home today when a Lancaster bomber flew overhead.

Which was nice :D
 
#2 ·
I love it when that happens. I was walking out to my car after work a couple of years back, and was "a bit" surprised to watch an ME-262 come in for a landing.

Not something you see every day. I'd love to see a Lancaster up close; in the air or on the ground.
 
#5 ·
We had a fairly good disussion over in the sister forum (English Gun Pub) on this topic when the Poms were flogging us in the Ashes before last.

During the telecast, at some ungodly hour of the morning here in Oz, a Lanc. accomanied by a Spit. and a Hurricane flew over the ground in formation at a very low altitude, bringing a temporary halt to play. There was NO complaint from anyone watching the spectacle, either on TV or at the ground.

I know it brought a lump to my throat to hear the Merlins purring.
 
#8 ·
Lancs

Does make you admire the guys who had to fly them....mostly at night and usually in crap weather. Only one pilot...(the Brits never woke up to the fact that if their only pilot was incapacitated they lost the whole aircraft and the crew. The Americans put two pilots in heavy aircraft)

Didnt have a flight engineer as far as I am aware...so the single pilot had manage the take off of the heavily loaded aircraft... sync engines, manage fuel and other systems....but they did have a nav and a wireless operator. I dont think we can comprehend the stress of continual night missions.....heavily defended targets then return to a blacked out homeland to find their airfield..with rudimentary navigation aids.....often by then fog had formed....Hence the adoption of FIDO. And woe betide any who showed symptoms of 'cracking'...charged with something like 'lack of moral fibre' and reduced to a lowly rank and given menial jobs....

I think bomber command suffered about 50000 casualties...some price to pay. After the war many who survived would not go near an aircraft again and could hardly bear to look at them. Heroes indeed.
 
#9 ·
lancaster had a crew of seven or eight they were pilot, flight engineer, front gunner,bombaimer, naviagtor, radio operater and tail gunner. a friend of the family he flew op's on lancaster's with 467 sqn lanc's as a nav his old plane fred the fox is in the iwm london he did 20 op's with fred before he came station navigation officer he lasted the war out. he later flew on lancastrians with qantas to australia sadly he past away a few years ago. he wrote a book about fred and the crew it's called we flew old fred- the fox bay arnold easton dfc
 
#12 ·
FYI, there is a flying Lancaster in Hamilton Ontario. I was working out back a few years ago (30 miles from Hamilton) and it made several low-level passes as it was putting on a show for someone nearby. You can only wonder what dozens flying by at once was like.

If you are ever in the Toronto or Niagara area, the Hamilton Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum has an impressive collection, many in flying condition. They are currently restoring a Bristol bolingbroke and a Westland Lysander, one of the more interesting and rare WW2 aircraft.

TRT
 
#13 ·
Long story short, I'm lucky in that my boyhood passion of WWII aircraft has never been too far from wherever I've lived. The CAF brought out 'FIFI', a B29 a few years ago for the Wings over Houston airshow (coming up soon). Her and three B17s (that I know of) occasionally flying around cause goose bumps! It would be nice to bag a Lancaster for their big show...

Regards, Brad
 
#15 ·
With all due respect to the American aircrews, their aircraft and designers, might I add that the cookie in the centre of the Lanc's bomb bay was the same weight as the entire payload of the contemporary American aircraft.

Please don't think I'm trying to start a pissing contest. I just wish to laud the Lancaster as a great aircraft for it's day.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Sure but you are talking about a B17, not a B29.
anyhow, there is this
www.nearlygood.com/video/spitfire.html
When i attended the Gordons reunion in 2000, a spitfire made three circuits over the field. That merlin is a sound you don't forget.

Was going home from work one day and there was a B24 coming in to land .
Also saw a Saab drakken shooting touch and goes on the runway.
But the best one was watching a silver high wing Ryan monoplane flying about the airport. Guess what was written on the side!
Then there was a DeHaviland vampire parked for years in the commercial part of the airport with IRISH air force markings! No engine, but somebody finaly found an engine and flew it out.
 
#17 ·
when they placed a cookie into the bomb bay the also had incendiaries aswell some times they had 2 cookie bomds in the lanc. if get the chance to get a copy of this film it was film in colour by wing cmdr i.coszen by a small handle operated camera it,s called the night bombers.
 
#21 ·
belly landed lanc

Yeah, interesting that the prop blades on the port and starboard inners seem to be in the 'feathered' position...the starboard outer seems 'normal' the pic doesnt let ya see the port outer...

Wonder what in flight dramas occurred before the 'landing'....maybe your dad can remember.
 
#23 ·
First crewings of the very early Lancaster operations would have been pilot, second-pilot, observer (performed nav and bombing duties), wireless operator, mid-upper gunner, rear gunner.

Standard crew in a post-1942 Lancaster was pilot, flight engineer, air bomber, navigator, wireless operator, mid-upper gunner and rear gunner.
Radio counter measure aircraft had an extra crew member a 'special' wireless operator.

The dams raid crews put the mid-upper gunner in the front turret, I think they removed the mid-upper turret too.

Later in the war nav equipment became more involved and the air bomber and navigator worked closer together with training streamed as Nav (wireless) and Nav (bombing).
 
#24 ·
Clambering over the Lanc

Managed to get into both the 'City of Lincoln' Lancaster a couple of times and one that used to be a gate guardian at RAF Scampton. Magnificent.

While working for BBC radio managed to go to the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight briefing... sitting on the grass under the wing of the Lancaster. Joy.

Now I've moved to Australia I have to be content with knowing that G-George is just a few hours up the highway in Canberra.
 
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