Could a Lancaster bomber perform a barrel loop?

[Geedee]

To add to the drama and effect, you have the Lanc pilot executing this very dangerous manouver as soon as he enters the cloud. Mr bad guy in the 190, intent on his kill and knowing its just within his reach goes barrelling into the cloud in hot pursuit.

Change scene to inside the 190 cockpit with the pilot adjusting his gunsight lighting and looking up to suddenly find his forward visibility blocked out by a Lanc at extreme close range with the rear gun turret and mid upper,with all guns blazing at him. His natural reaction ...zoom into pilots eyes open wide in abject terror ...is to pull back on his stick as fast as he can and he zooms up and over the Lanc ...narrowly missing the tail fins of course... and gets his underside raked from 6 X .303 at point blank range. He's out of the fight at this point.

Back into the Lanc cockpit and the cocky Pilot has discovered that as the undercart dropped too quickly, its has smashed the locking mechanism so not only can he not now raise the wheels, hee's also got belly the Lanc in when he gets to his chosen field to land.

 

[RabidAlien]

How's this for scenario? Lanc goes down to the deck to level the playing field (pun intended), so that the only advantage the 190 has now is its speed...no diving passes and coming up from beneath. They whip in and out of the landscape, dodging trees (at one point, the tail gunner has to contend with a huge leaf on his window), zipping under high bridges and wires (aka "Blue Max" style...LOVE that scene!)....upon finding some fog over a river, the Lanc pilot ducks in, the Nav directs him towards a mid-sized town, whereupon he does some remarkable dodging of buildings and watertowers and such....sees a cable stretched between two buildings higher up and dips under just in time, only the 190 doesn't see it and lops off a significant portion of his rudder...while 190 is fighting to keep aloft, all available guns pour enough lead into the plane to turn it into a pencil. Or better yet....knowing there's a power plant coming up (Nav again involved) he has one of the waist-gunners (or tailgunner, if he had a window of some sort....or a shell hole....that would be awesome!) poke out the side of the plane with their flare pistol and launch a flare backwards towards the 190. The only ones who's vision would be affected would be tailgunner and the guy firing, but the 190 pilot would be either blinded or have to fly with eyes shut...at which point he gets toasted by bullets and then spirals down to crash into the power plant....destroying it....and getting a SECOND target to the Lanc's credit. Then the damage scenario where they end up driving up a hill to gain some altitude back in England, coast in on two engines and come to a shuddering halt in front of the pub. Cue angry squadron CO, buy some rounds, chew hotshot pilot out, etc etc.

 

[MickMcM]

Tim. Just what I was thinking. Low-level and it's credible and would make for an exciting scene. My mind is made up.
Thanks.

 

[RabidAlien]

Make sure to mention ww2aircraft.net in the credits!

 

[timshatz]

Good luck Mick.

As for the rest of the posts, man, you guys have some VERY active imaginations! Good reads, interesting and entertaining.

 

[MickMcM]

I'm stunned everybody. Some splendid ideas here.

I'm going to study some of your offerings very closely. It's funny because you've all come up with suggestions that completely eluded me even though it occurred to me from quite early on that low-flying would be a good visual and cinematic way to avoid enemy fighters. Unfortunately I hadn't quite appreciated at the time, the vulnerability of bombers to attack from below otherwise I might have continued with this approach. But I will now. You've all given me a new lease of life!

As to credits, I will demand them from Spielberg, my mate Steven that is (yeah, right I hear you say...).

Thanks, everyone.
Mick

 

[timshatz]

Funny point, and it goes to your business and less this board.

There is a movie called "The Dam Busters" about a Lancaster Squadron that flies a highly dangerous mission to destroy German Damns. It is something of a classic that they are rumoring to remake. Anyway, that movie (which is about low level flying in the Lancaster if you need some reference material) influenced George Lucas to the point that he used a line from it in his movie "Star Wars".

There is a scene in "Damn Busters" when Guy Gibson has arrived at the first damn and the Germans open up on him. He asks another pilot, "How many guns are there?". The other pilot says, "I'd say twenty guns, some in the towers, some in the fields". Flash forward to "Star Wars". When the Rebel strike force is attacking the Death Star, the defenses open up on them. Then the line is used again in "Star Wars". It's a neat little sidenote.

Anyway, watching "Damn Busters" might help.

 

[MickMcM]

Actually, Gedee, the swift pint is an excellent idea! Maybe two swift pints... I find it oils the cogs of the old creative processes.

Mick

 

[Geedee]

Actually, Gedee, the swift pint is an excellent idea! Maybe two swift pints... I find it oils the cogs of the old creative processes.

Mick

Too righty it does !!!

 

[trackend]

Mine gott 2 Spitfires on the port wing

 

[GrauGeist]

Why does the step those beers are sitting on say "Do Not Use"? Are those beers decoys or something?

And a bomber's underbelly is one of it's weakspots. You get a 190A-8 in from slightly below and to the 5 or 7 of the bomber, at a range of about 650 meters, the bomber is in for some serious trouble.