Lancaster

[Clave]

The Avro Lancaster entered service with the RAF in 1942 and became one of the most successful night bombers of the war. The Lancaster was also used by Argentina, Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, New Zealand, and No 300 Polish Squadron.

There were several adaptations of the Lancaster including the Upkeep 'bouncing bomb' special for the Dambuster raid, and versions made to carry the Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs.

The Lancaster was armed with 8 x 7.7 mm machine guns in 3 turrets, and 14,000 lb of bombs as standard. A single Tallboy bomb of 12,000 lb, Grand Slam of 22,000 lb, or Upkeep of 9,250 lb were carried in the Special versions.

BI of the Argentine Air Force 1948.

BI of 12 Squadron RAF 1942.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Beautiful!

 

[Gnomey]

Excellent!

 

[Wildcat]

Very nice Clave! Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Clave]

Oh, forgot the close-up:

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Excellent work as always Clave!

 

[Clave]

Thanks - Still working on these, and also realising the huge amount of changes made for the Special versions....

Front turret removed and faired over.

Upper turret removed and faired over.

Bomb-bay doors removed, special release installed, parts of the bomb-bay faired over.

Then you can go for the Grand Slam 22,000 lb version:

BI Special of 617 Squadron RAF 1945.

 

[Lucky13]

Stunning work as always mate!

 

[v2]

Excellent!

 

[Wurger]

Brilliant Clave.

 

[Gnomey]

Excellent work!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Stupendous work!!!!!!

 

[Clave]

Thanks!

I have of course, yet to do the Dambuster Special - And I'm digging around to clarify things before I start modding the drawing...

I found a photograph of the mechanism here:

1943+dambusters+02.jpg (image)

So, here's what I'm trying to find out:

a) Is there a belt and a chain connected to the bomb? If so are these only present on the starboard side?

b) The 'belts' look hugely different in size and strength, so presumably the most further forward (thin) one is not the drive motor to spin the bomb?

c) The 'V' brackets - are they inside or outside the fuselage skin? Looking at drawings it seems they are attached up inside the bomb-bay and drop down through where the doors used to be - so they should be inside the skin... but can't see this on any photograph....

d) Finally - Is it a B1 Special or B3 Special? I am lost on this one... I have seen it referred to as both, but the photo shows a long row of small windows, which means B1... I think...?

 

[calquin24]

Excelent.

 

[Wayne Little]

TOP Stuff Bill!

 

[mudpuppy]

Clave, looking at this Dutch (?) website it appears to have the same photo you posted above but a little clearer. It shows the inverted V brackets outside the fuselage and the drive belt extending forward towards the nose of the plane:
Aeropedia / Upkeep de Bouncing Bomb

Then looking at this linked site from the one above it has a simple drawing of how a SINGLE belt was used to spin the bomb...with the inverted V brackets opening for the release:
dambusters

I may certainly be posting information you already have but I do hope it may be helpful in some small way.
I used ot have an '80's aircraft WWII aircraft book with great detailed schematics of a Mosquito with a spherical spinning bomb but my brother took that.

Regards,
Derek

 

[Clave]

Many thanks for that - the photo is so much clearer, so I now have something to work with... 8)

 

[Clave]

A couple more:

BI of 9 Squadron Royal Egyptian Air Force 1950.

BIII Special of 617 Squadron RAF 1943.

 

[Gnomey]

Excellent as usual Clave! Looking forward to the Dambusters version.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I thought that was the Dambuster version. Stupendous work Clave.