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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0220.PDF
THERE is a big lesson to be learnt from the AvroLancastrian, and that is that each aircraft must bedesigned for the specific purpose for which it is intended. As a bomber the Lancaster is a world beater.It ploughs its quick way to Berlin with a load of bombs weighing 14,000 lb. The same aircraft (except for apointed nose and tail) as a riine-seater airliner carries less than half that load. A glance at the official weight figures on page 120 showsa maximum payload of only 4,845 1b. for an all-up weight of 65,000 !b. These are somewhat pessimistic figures be-cause 68,000 lb. is quite an ordinary take-off weight and there is no reason why a maximum of even 72,000 lb.should not be allowed. The difficulty, of course, lies in the fact that the Lancaster was designed for very concen-trated and dense loads and, although many more passengers could be carried, there is nowhere to park them. As Sir Roy Dobson, managing director of the Avro con-cern, has said, "The Lancastrian is not to be taken for something which it is not. It is the outcome of an urgent request for aircraft suitable for flying V.I.P.s (Very Im- portant Personages) long distances at high speed and re- gardless of cost. The necessary changes in design were made two and a half years ago. The real Avro commercial aircraft will be seen this summer when the Avro 20 (Tudor I) and Avro 21 (Tudor II) will be flown. They will have accommodation for a maximum of 68 passengers with a range of 4,000 miles." For Empire Routes Bearing the foregoing in mind, it can be said with truth that the Lancastrian is a first-class, if uneconomical, air- craft. The - t machines which are now being built in this country are for use on the Empire routes—particularly the . Britain-Australia run—by the British Overseas Airways -JJ Corporation to supplement the purely transport types such as the Avro York. Earlier models, built in Canada, have for a long time been in service with Trans-Canada Air Lines, Ltd. They have also been operating a regular thrice-weekly service across the North Atlantic ocean between Montreal and .- - Prestwick, in Scotland. The best figures which have been set up in these crossings are:—westbound, 11 hr. 26 min., and east- ' "*" bound, 10 hr. 13 rnin. These speeds have, of course, been excelled by purely military typsa, but there is no other civil aircraft of ""•'- equivalent weight with a superior perform- ance. In the main structure the Lancastrian is identical with the Lancaster, but all the bomber's carrying capacity has been con- L_ COLD CONFERENCE:(L. to R.) H. A. Browne (chief test pilot); Sir RoyH. Dobson (managing director); Roy Chadwick(chief designer) and C. E. Fielding (director ofworks production). IN PEACEFULGUISE: The absence of paintand the pointed nose effectuallycamouflages the original outline ofthe Lancaster.
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