01462 AVRO 691 LANCASTRIAN

The Avro Lancastrian was a British passenger and mail plane, a metal structure with a spine-wing configuration. The C.1 version was powered by 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines with 1250 HP each. The flight of the prototype took place in 1943, and serial production continued in 1943-1945, ending with the production of 91 examples of this aircraft. The machine did not have a permanent armament. The Avro Lancastrian is based on the Avro Lancaster strategic bomber, which is even indicated by the name of the aircraft. It was very similar to its predecessor, with all on-board weapons removed, the bomb hatch adapted to the transport of passengers, and the glass nose replaced with a metal one with better aerodynamic properties. The Avro Lancastrian turned out to be a plane with a considerable range, large lifting capacity and good maneuverability for a machine of such a large size. However, it was very narrow, which made the transport of passengers much more difficult and did not provide them with sufficient flight comfort. In total, four versions of this aircraft were made. The first was designated Lancastrian C.1, which was used by the RAF and civil airlines as a passenger machine. Later, a Lancastrian C.2 version was created, which was only used by the RAF. Then a short batch of the Lancastrian C.3 version was created, in which the number of passenger seats was increased. Finally, the latest version is the Lancastrian C.4, which compared to the C.2 version had more seats for carrying passengers and cargo and was used only by the RAF. The last Avro Lancastrian planes were decommissioned by 1960.