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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0138.PDF
HE V UXCAN STORY tin. DURING the Second World War A. V. Roe and Co.,Ltd., one of the principal partners in the HawkerSiddeley Group, produced our finest bomber aeroplane, the immortal Lancaster. From it was evolved the Lincoln,which had even greater load-carrying ability coupled with a speed not far short of 300 m.p.h. and an operating altitude ofwell over 20,000ft. When we described the Lincoln in detail shortly after the war we said "on every count of assessmentthe machine comes nearer the ultimate than any other heavy bomber in the world." In view of the existence of the B-29this may have been a generous appraisal, but it serves to emphasize how highly the Lincoln was regarded twelve yearsago when it was new. This being so, it is easy to appreciate the perceptive fore- sight and remarkable courage of the British Air Staff, who atthat time had already formulated a requirement for a bomber having more than twice the Lincoln's speed and operatingaltitude, coupled with improved range and bomb-load. No one can truthfully say that our procurement of military aero-planes during the past decade has been in any way a model of sound thinking, and it is therefore worth stressing that in1946 the specification which ultimately resulted in the V-bombers was appreciably in advance of equivalent require-ments in any other country. It is still not permissible to divulge the figures called for in this outstanding document,but it is clear that the specification posed a challenge so great as to be almost, but not quite, beyond "the state of the art."Superimposed on the ambitious demands for performance This historic sketch is believed to be the very first Avro 698 delta drawing. The "doodles" are by the late Roy Chadwick and his team.
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