It was adaptable and perhaps most importantly it was capable of considerable development. This gave the mid upper gunner a much better field of fire. Nine of these aircraft were produced, referred to as Lancaster XPPs (for Lancaster Mk.X Passenger Planes), and each was equipped with rudimentary passenger facilities. Each aircraft was carrying ‘Upkeep’ also known as the bouncing bomb. The FN-121 was the Automatic Gun Laying Turret (AGLT), an FN-120 fitted with An important feature of the Lancaster was its unobstructed 33 ft (10 m) long bomb bay. The Elsan The Avro Lancaster was initially equipped with four Late on in the war, as a result of statistical analysis, The ventral (underside) FN-64 turret quickly proved to be dead weight, being both difficult to sight because it relied on a periscope which limited the gunner's view to a 20-degree arc,The tail turret was the most important defensive position and carried the heaviest armament. On 10 March 1942, the first bombing mission was conducted over the German city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Amongst those who received the The Avro Lancaster featured prominently in the 1955 film Lancaster pilot at the controls, left, flight engineer at rightThe flight engineer checks control panel from his seatMark X nose with twin .303 Brownings in turret over bomb-aimer's positionTop view of the nose turret and the bomber's stationA 617 Squadron Lancaster dropping a Grand Slam bomb on the Arnsberg viaduct, March 1945.An RAF officer inspects the hole left by a Grand Slam in the reinforced concrete roofCertified/factory-built aircraft manufactured in CanadaThis aircraft carries the deepened bomb aimer blister (Mod. Then to drop it with an accuracy seldom demanded or seen before. Despite this, the turrets used, starting with the FN-20, were never entirely satisfactory and numerous designs were tried. Starting at the nose, the Behind the pilot and flight engineer, and behind a curtain fitted to allow him to use light to work, sat the To the rear of the turret was the side crew door, on the starboard side of the fuselage. One of these was the In the post-war climate, the Lancaster continued to see use for several more years, during which a number of high-profile operations were conducted.In RAF service, the Lancaster remained at the forefront of Bomber Command; the Lancaster B I was gradually replaced by the improved Lancaster B I (F/E) models.The Lancaster continued to be operated in significant numbers until the introduction of the new A total of 59 Lancaster B.Is and B.VIIs were overhauled by Avro at Woodford and Langar and delivered to the Between 1948 and 1949, a total of 15 former RAF Lancasters were overhauled at Langar for use by the Beginning in 1946, Lancaster Mk Xs were modified for service with the Civil conversions of the type continued during the initial postwar years. When coupled to the very strong bomb bay structure it made for a very strong aircraft. On 2 March 1942, the first operational mission of the Lancaster, deploying naval mines in the vicinity of Heligoland Bight, was performed by aircraft of No. The design, proving and installation works for all these modifications was carried out in the strictest of secrecy and covered many hundreds of people at tens of companies across the county.The end result of all this work was an aircraft capable of carrying a very heavy and highly specialised weapon at low level and to be able to position itself at a very precise sped and height over the lakes of Germanys inland lakes. Used to train air crews and later for coastal patrols and search-and-rescue work, it was retired in 1963. Needless to say it was a closely guarded secret and the aircraft produced were given (G) suffix codes meaning that when on the ground they were to be guarded by an armed guard at all times.The Modifications to the 464 Provisioning aircraft were extensive and covered major items such as the fitting of more powerful engines, removal of the dorsal turret, removal of bomb bay doors, fitting of a wind deflector for the mine, support arms, release mechanism and an ex submarine hydraulic motor and belt drives to spin the mine. The tail plane configuration was experimented with, the aircraft at one stage having triple tail fins, but this was finally settled with the same configuration as the production Manchester but with much enlarged twin fins. The aircraft was protected by a power operated Frazer Nash nose turret armed with a pair of .303 browning machine guns, a similar turret in the tail with four machine guns. With 2018 marking the 75 th Anniversary of Operation Chastise and the famous … The FN-20 was replaced by the very similar FN-120 which used an improved Gunners using both the FN-20 and 120 removed perspex and armour from the turret to improve visibility, but trials by the RAF showed that a Ultimately radar, rather than improved visibility, made the turret more effective. Much smaller changes included the fitting of front gunner stirrups to keep his feet out of the bomb aimers face, spent case collecting bags (to stop them falling on the bomb aimers head) and strengthened oleo legs and bomb beams. The target was three dams in Germany’s Ruhr Valley.

The aircraft was capable of carrying the Upkeep weapon, its bomb bay was long enough to allow the weapon to be placed on the centre of gravity and the power plants were capable of producing the energy required to spin the mine.

This specification resulted in the Handley Page Halifax and the Avro Manchester.