Shipbucket

Surprised at how little attention has been taken to the Avro bombers I've taken the Lancaster model and run with it to build up the family tree.

Avro 679

Initial miniature model for the P.13/36 bomber specification. Artistic license taken to the cowlings; generic cowl replaced with the actual cowls used on the Manchester, and Manchester tailwheel added that was not included on the model.

Avro 679 Manchester

The Manchester was ordered "off the drawing board", and controllability issues were immediately apparent. A variety of tail surfaces were tested with the "sharkfin" additional tail used on the original Mark I, and larger tailplanes used on the Mark IA. The in-development RR Vulture engine was however the Manchester's achille's heel and the aircraft was a dismal failure.

Avro 679 unbuilt variants

From the very start, alternate engines were planned for the Manchester. The first prototype was planned to have Bristol Hercules engines, but was cancelled during construction.
The Manchester Mark II was planned with Bristol Centaurus engines, but the concept was dropped when the alternate Mark III was seen to be the best development.
Another development that was cancelled during construction was a test aircraft for the pre-war British concept that anti-fighter defense would require heavy turrets armed with heavy cannons rather than mere machine guns. A combination of gathering war clouds leaving little time for experimentation and the poor performance of the Vulture lead to construction being terminated.

Avro 680 "Ideal Bomber"

Avro's first attempt to upgrade the Manchester into a four-engine bomber was the 680, Avro's entry for the "Ideal Bomber" specification. This design was judged to be too complex, and the specification was eventually dropped as immediate war needs became pressing.

Avro 683 Lancaster Mark I

Originally the Manchester Mark III was designed with 4 RR Merlin engines to replace the 2 powerful, but unreliable RR Vultures. The Lancaster was immediately successful - so much so that only minor changes were made during its production run, and that the original Mark I was itself never really replaced in production.
Originally designed with a belly turret, these were soon removed. A taboo ring was added around the dorsal turret to prevent the gunner inadvertently shooting the twin tails, and in later marques the turrets were sometimes removed entirely.
Several minor variations to the bomb bay were made, to fit the large size Tallboy and Grandslam bombs.
As deployment to the Pacific War loomed, one idea to increase the range of the Lancaster (and also later the Lincoln) was test flown of a large fuselage fuel tank. The idea was shelved as being too inherently dangerous.
With the end of the European War, many Lancasters were modified to FE (Far East) standard and painted bright white to enable the crews to cope with the heat not built into the European design.
After the War, some Mark I's were modified for photo reconnaissance duties, and were responsible for most of the post war aerial mapping of Africa and the Middle East.

Avro 683 Lancaster Mark II

To cope with a potential lack of Merlin engines, the Mark II was designed around the Bristol Hercules engine. The belly turrets were again built into most Mark II's.
The Merlin engine crisis never eventuated and the Hercules did not live up to their promise, so the Mark II was not produced in great quantity.

Avro 683 Lancaster Mark III

The Lancaster Mark III was indistinguishable from the Mark I, the only difference being the fitting of American Packard Merlin engines - some aircraft were alternated between being a Mark I or Mark III as their engines were changed during service.
The most notable Mark III variant were the Dambuster aircraft, coded for deception purposes as the Vickers Type 464 (provisioning).
After the war some Mark III's were repurposed as Air Sea Rescue aircraft, able to carry and drop lifeboats, and the final Lancaster in RAF service was operated on maritime reconnaissance until 1956.

The Lancaster Mark IV and Lancaster Mark V were significant upgrades to the Lancaster design, and became the Lincoln bomber.

Avro 683 Lancaster Mark VI

Nine aircraft were fitted with higher powered Merlin engines in the new RR power egg cowlings, later to be seen on the Lincoln. These aircraft were trialed as pathfinder aircraft, but unreliability of the new engines led to them being withdrawn from service.

Avro 683 Lancaster Mark VII

The final British-built version of the Lancaster, mainly differing in the change to Martin dorsal turrets, turrets which arrived too late to be fitted to the initial batch of Mark VII's.

Avro 683 Lancaster Mark X

Production of the Lancaster was also undertaken in Canada at Victory Aircraft, who became Avro Canada after the end of the war. The Mark X was basically the original Mark I (as the pattern aircraft was that was flown to Canada), but with American rather than British equipment fitted. The Mark X aircraft were used exclusively by the Canadian Air Force, and after the war the aircraft were flown back to Canada.

Avro 683 unbuilt variants

A high altitude Lancaster was designed, utilizing the pressurized cabin section used in the pressurized Wellington. The design was further developed into the Avro 684.
A major redesign was embarked on for a more streamlined high speed Lancaster, but due to other commitments at Avro the design was not progressed.

Avro 683 Atomic Lancaster

Initially there were no American aircraft capable of carrying the atomic bombs, so the Lancaster was seriously considered for production in the US as the atomic bomber. However extreme resistance from senior military personnel led to the idea not being carried forward. I have taken the liberty of repainting "what-ifs" of Americanised Lancasters Enola Gay and Bock's Car.

Soviet Lancasters

Although never provided with Lancasters, the Soviet Union operated 2 Lancasters. After the Tirpitz raids into Norway, the Bomber Command Lancasters flew on to the USSR for refueling. Aircraft that were too damaged to continue back to Britain were abandoned at the airfields in the USSR. Soviet engineers were able to cobble together 2 flying aircraft out of the damaged machines, and operated them successfully until the end of the War.

Excellent collection, I especially like those silverplate Lancasters

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DeviantArt

Excellent work with the Avro Lancaster, the most significant British WW2 bomber.

Avro 683 Lancaster test aircraft

The so many Lancaster aircraft available, many were used as development testbeds.
The design of a revised nose allowing the bomb aimer to be seated rather than prone led to the nose of the Lincoln.
One Lancaster was used as an aerodynamic test for aircraft wing sections. This particular aircraft is still flying, and has been "remilitarized" as the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster.

Avro 683 Lancaster engine testbeds

The Lancaster played a vital role in the development of turbine engines, both turbo-props and jets, with various five and even six engine configurations flying.

Avro 683 Lancaster Swedish Tp80 testbed

One Lancaster was sold to Sweden for use testing the STAL Dovern engine. This aircraft was the only Lancaster fitted with a retractable double tailwheel, and extended height tail fins.

Avro 683 Lancaster Canadian transports

Requiring trans-Atlantic transports, Canada starting work on producing a transport version of the Lancaster. The initial pattern Lancaster was rebuilt as a transport prototype, and the XT (10 Transport) was developed. This was further refined into the XPP (10 Passenger Plane).

Avro 683 Lancaster civil conversions

Britain was also working on a transport version of the Lancaster, and one aircraft was operated by BOAC during the war.
After the war, many of the surplus Lancaster were converted to civil use, with varying degrees of modification.
One aircraft was trialed with a belly pod, however performance was so bad it was only flown once before being removed.

Avro 683 Lancaster "Aries"

The RAF also modified Lancasters for non combat roles. The most famous being "Aries", used initially to plot the round-the-world routing to allow Bomber Command to relocate to the Pacific, and then after further modifications used to overfly the magnetic north pole.

Avro 683 Lancaster air-to-air refueling tanker

Severl aircraft were used as air to air refueling tanker aircraft, this being the most modified aircraft.

Avro 683 Lancaster 10

After the War, Canada reactivated many of its retired Lancaster X's, renamed them Lancaster 10's of various new marques and put them back into service.
The 10S (Standard) was the minimum change modernised aircraft. 10U (Unmodified) is referred to by some sources, but it appears to have been bureaucratic shorthand for the old airframes before modernisation rather than a real type designation.
Two jet test aircraft were planned, the 10C (Chinook engine) and 10O (Orenda engine), but as the Chinook engine development was cancelled the potential 10C aircraft was never constructed, while the 10O successful conducted its test programme.

Avro 684 Stratosphere Bomber

Continuing from the high altitude Lancaster design, the 684 Stratosphere Bomber added a fifth engine into the belly. Rather than deliver power to a propeller, this engine was to be used to provide additional supercharging to the wing-mounted engines to allow extreme altitude abilities. The design was far advanced, when lack of resources at Avro forced this aircraft to be shelved.

A really majestic work!