When was the Lancester bomber made?

Answer 1

1941. The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley-Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within RAF Bomber Command. The Lanc or Lankie, as it became affectionately known, became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties. Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing, and gained worldwide renown as the Dam Buster used in the 1943 Operation Chastise raids on Germany's Ruhr Valley dams.

The origins of the Lancaster lie in a twin-engined bomber design submitted to meet Specification P.13/36, which was for a new generation of twin-engined medium bombers for worldwide use, the engine specified as the Rolls-Royce Vulture. The resulting aircraft was the Avro Manchester, which, although a capable aircraft, was troubled by the unreliability of the Vulture. Only 200 Manchesters were built and they were withdrawn from service in 1942.

Avro's chief designer, Roy Chadwick, was already working on an improved Manchester design using four of the more reliable but less powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engines on a larger wing. The aircraft was initially designated Avro Type 683 Manchester III, and later re-named the Lancaster. The prototype aircraft BT308 was assembled by Avro's experimental flight department at Manchester's Ringway Airport from where test pilot H.A. Thorn took the controls for its first flight on Thursday, 9 January 1941. The aircraft proved to be a great improvement on its predecessor, being one of the few warplanes in history to be right from the start. Its initial three-finned tail layout, a result of the design being adapted from the Manchester I, was quickly changed on the second prototype DG595 and subsequent production aircraft to the familiar twin finned specification.

Answer 2

The Lancaster first flew operationally in 1942 and proved to be WW2's best heavy bomber.