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Avro Lincoln

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111-663: The Avro Type 694 Lincoln is a British four-engined heavy bomber , which first flew on 9 June 1944. Developed from the Avro Lancaster , the first Lincoln variants were initially known as the Lancaster IV and V ; these were renamed Lincoln I and II . It was the 2nd last piston-engined bomber operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Lincoln attained operational status in August 1945. It had been initially assigned to units of

222-421: A Napier Naiad turboprop in the nose. It later flew, bearing the civilian "Class B" test registration G-37-1 , with a similarly placed Rolls-Royce Tyne which it displayed at the 1956 Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC) show, making a low level flypast on just the nose Tyne, the four Merlins being shut down and propellers feathered. SX973 had a Napier Nomad diesel turbo-compound installed in

333-578: A combat radius of 4,480 miles (7,210 km). During World War II, mass production techniques made available large, long-range heavy bombers in such quantities as to allow strategic bombing campaigns to be developed and employed. This culminated in August 1945, when B-29s of the United States Army Air Forces dropped atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The arrival of nuclear weapons and guided missiles permanently changed

444-708: A climate of significantly reduced military expenditure. The battle was kickstarted by the resignation in December 1918 of William Weir the President of the Air Council (the governing body of the Royal Air Force), who wished to return to his commercial activities. This led the Prime Minister, Lloyd George , to create a Secretary of State for Air , but not as a Cabinet position, and on 9 January 1919 offered Winston Churchill

555-684: A consequence of the end of the war, production in Canada was halted after only a single aircraft had been constructed. Production in Australia went ahead: the Lincolns that were manufactured there were operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). During early 1945, the British Government immediately set about restoring the country to a peacetime stance, which involved the demobilisation of

666-578: A few landed safely at RAF bases in Cyprus and some in Turkey, where they were interned. Only 33 were undamaged. Damage to the refineries was soon repaired and oil production actually increased. By October 1942, a new Ford Motor Company plant at Willow Run Michigan was assembling Liberators. Production reached a rate of over one an hour in 1944 helping the B-24 to become the most produced US aircraft of all time. It became

777-471: A fourth RAAF Lincoln squadron, No. 10 was formed on 17 March 1949 at RAAF Townsville as a reconnaissance unit. During the 1950s, RAAF Lincolns participated in combat operations in Malaya, operating alongside RAF examples. The RAAF based the B.Mk 30s of No.1 Squadron at Tengah, for the duration of operations in Malaya. These Lincolns served with 10 Squadron RAAF at RAAF Base Townsville , Garbutt, Queensland ;

888-663: A lot to Sikorsky's ideas; of similar size, it used just two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and could carry up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs. The O/100 was designed at the beginning of the war for the Royal Navy specifically to sink the German High Seas Fleet in Kiel: the Navy called for “a bloody paralyser of an aircraft” Entering service in late 1916 and based near Dunkirk in France, it

999-573: A pair of Armstrong Siddeley Python turboprops outboard in place of the Merlins, and was used for the ballistic casing drop-test programme for the Blue Danube atomic weapon. SX972 was further modified to fly with a pair of Bristol Proteus turboprops. RA716/G had a similarly placed pair of Bristol Theseus turboprops and later also flew with Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets replacing the pair of turboprops. Lincoln Test Bed RF530 kept its Merlins but had

1110-540: A primary school, and injured 432 in East London. Initially, defence against air attack was poor, but by May 19, 1918, when 38 Gothas attacked London, six were shot down and another crashed on landing. German aircraft companies also built a number of giant bombers, collectively known as the Riesenflugzeug . Most were produced in very small numbers from 1917 onwards and several never entered service. The most numerous were

1221-457: A range of 2,530 miles (4,070 km), while the B-29 (1944) delivered payloads in excess of 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) and had a range of 3,250 miles (5,230 km). By the late 1950s, the jet -powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress , travelling at speeds of up to 650 miles per hour (1,050 km/h) (more than double that of a Lancaster), could deliver a payload of 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg), over

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1332-713: A result, Lloyd George , the British Prime Minister, established a committee composed of himself and General Jan Smuts , which was tasked with investigating the problems with the British air defences and organizational difficulties which had beset the Air Board. Towards the end of the First World War, on 17 August 1917, General Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power. Because of its potential for

1443-518: A similar nose-mounted installation. RA643 flew with a Bristol Phoebus turbojet in the bomb bay, and SX971 had an afterburning Rolls-Royce Derwent mounted ventrally. A pair of Lincoln IIs were operated by D. Napier & Son Ltd. for icing research from 1948 to 1962. A transport conversion of the Lincoln II, using the streamlined nose and tail cones of the Lancastrian and a ventral cargo pannier,

1554-508: A squadron of 10 was bombing German positions on the Eastern Front and by summer 1916 there were twenty. It was well-armed with nine machine guns, including a tail gun and initially was immune to German and Austro-Hungarian air attack. The Sikorsky bomber had a wingspan just a few feet shorter than that of a World War II Avro Lancaster , while being able to carry a bomb load of only 3% of the later aircraft. The Handley Page Type O /100 owed

1665-413: A war. This was certainly vindicated by the firebombing of Japanese cities and the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, as Japan's fragile housing and cottage industry made themselves easily vulnerable to attack, thus completely destroying Japanese industrial production (see Air Raids on Japan ). It was less evident that it held true for the bombing of Germany. During

1776-656: The Allies on August 15, and the Japanese government subsequently signed the official instrument of surrender on September 2, 1945. After World War II, the name strategic bomber came into use, for aircraft that could carry aircraft ordnances over long distances behind enemy lines. They were supplemented by smaller fighter-bombers with less range and lighter bomb load, for tactical strikes. Later these were called strike fighters , attack aircraft and multirole combat aircraft . When North Korea attacked South Korea in 1950

1887-633: The Armistice with Germany). The Vimy's intended use was to bomb industrial and railway targets in western Germany, which it could reach with its range of 900 miles (1,400 km) and a bomb load of just over a ton. The Vickers Vimy is best known as the aircraft that made the first Atlantic crossing from St John's Newfoundland to Clifden in Ireland piloted by the Englishman John Alcock and navigated by Scot Arthur Whitten Brown on June 14, 1919. Between

1998-519: The Army 's Royal Flying Corps and the Navy 's Royal Naval Air Service had led to serious problems, not only in the procurement of aircraft engines, but also in the air defence of Great Britain. It was the supply problems to which an attempt at rectification was first made. The War Committee meeting on 15 February 1916 decided immediately to establish a standing joint naval and military committee to co-ordinate both

2109-691: The B-1 , B-52 and B-2 have been retained for the role of carpet bombing in several conflicts. The most prolific example (in terms of total bomb tonnage) is the U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress during the 1960s–early 1970s Vietnam War era, in Operation Menu , Operation Freedom Deal , and Operation Linebacker II . In 1987 the Soviet Tu-160 —the heaviest supersonic bomber/aircraft currently in active service—entered service; it can carry twelve long-range cruise missiles. The 2010 New START agreement between

2220-562: The Grand Slam bomb to be carried. It had a higher operational ceiling and longer range than its Lancaster predecessor, being capable of a maximum altitude of 35,000 ft (6.6 mi; 11 km) and a maximum range of 4,450 miles (7,160 km). The prototype Lancaster IV, later renamed the Lincoln I , was assembled by Avro's experimental flight department at Manchester 's Ringway Airport . According to aviation author Kev Delve, development of

2331-981: The Heinkel He 177 which saw only limited use against the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom ) was published. After Wever's death, Ernst Udet , development director at the Air Ministry steered the Luftwaffe towards dive bombers instead. When Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939, the RAF had no heavy bomber yet in service; heavy bomber designs had started in 1936 and ordered in 1938. The Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster both originated as twin-engine "medium" bombers, but were rapidly redesigned for four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and rushed into service once

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2442-506: The Iron Curtain . Small numbers remained in use with Nos 7, 83 and 97 Squadrons until the end of 1955, at which point the type was phased out, having been replaced by the first of the V bombers . During the 1950s, RAF Lincolns participated in operations in Kenya against Mau-Mau insurgents. During this action, they were operated from Eastleigh . The Lincoln was also deployed to Malaya during

2553-532: The Junkers Ju 88 . Heavy bombers still needed defensive armament for protection, even at night. The Stirling's low operational ceiling of just 12,000 ft (3,700 m)—also caused by the thick wing—meant that it was usually picked on by night fighters; within five months, 67 of the 84 aircraft in service had been lost. The bomb bay layout limited the size and types of bombs carried and it was relegated to secondary duties such as tug and paratrooper transport. Due to

2664-664: The Malayan Emergency , where it was used against insurgents aligned to the Malayan Communist Party . In Malayan theatre, RAF Lincolns were operated from Changi Air Base and Tengah Air Base . In excess of 3,000 sorties were flown during their 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 -year deployment, during which half a million pounds of bombs dropped, 85 per cent of the total bomb tonnage dropped during the Malayan emergency. On 12 March 1953, an RAF Lincoln ( RF531 "C") of Central Gunnery School

2775-598: The Ministry of Aviation (1959–67) and finally the Ministry of Technology (1967–70). In the 1920s and early 1930s research and development was more than 20% of the Air Ministry’s total expenditure on aircraft and equipment, making it the largest research and development spending institution in Britain, until it was outstripped by private industry in the later 1930s. The Air Ministry was responsible for weather forecasting over

2886-456: The Royal Navy to losing their own air service and subsequent lobbying that personnel for naval air purposes afloat be naval officers and ratings – this would have led to a recreation of the now disbanded Royal Naval Air Service . This negotiation led to the creation of RAF Coastal Area the predecessor of RAF Coastal Command to deal with its relationship with the Navy. Throughout 1919 there were discussions between Sir Hugh Trenchard Chief of

2997-717: The Secretary of State for Air . On 13 April 1912, less than two weeks after the creation of the Royal Flying Corps (which initially consisted of both a naval and a military wing), an Air Committee was established to act as an intermediary between the Admiralty and the War Office in matters relating to aviation. The new Air Committee was composed of representatives of the two war ministries, and although it could make recommendations, it lacked executive authority. The recommendations of

3108-574: The Supermarine Spitfire had very limited endurance. An early raid on Rouen-Sotteville rail yards in Brittany on August 17, 1942, required four Spitfire squadrons outbound and five more for the return trip. The USAAF chose to attack aircraft factories and component plants. On August 17, 1943, 230 Fortresses attacked a ball-bearing plant in Schweinfurt and again two months later, with 291 bombers, in

3219-661: The Tiger Force , a Commonwealth heavy bomber force which had been intended to play a role in the Japan campaign in the closing stages of the Second World War , but the war ended before the Lincoln could participate. Production of the type proceeded and the type was adopted in quantity, complementing and progressively replacing the Lancaster in RAF service during the late 1940s. The Lincoln

3330-460: The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI of which 13 saw service, bombing Russia and London: four were shot down and six lost on landing. The R.VIs were larger than the standard Luftwaffe bombers of World War II. The Vickers Vimy , a long-range heavy bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, was delivered to the newly formed Royal Air Force too late to see action (only one was in France at time of

3441-639: The second raid on Schweinfurt . The works was severely damaged but at a huge cost: 36 aircraft lost in the first raid, 77 in the second. Altogether 850 airmen were killed or captured; only 33 Fortresses returned from the October raid undamaged With the arrival of North American P-51 Mustangs and the fitting of drop tanks to increase the range of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt for the Big Week offensive, between February 20–25, 1944, bombers were escorted all

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3552-490: The 'devastation of enemy lands and the destruction of industrial and populous centres on a vast scale', he recommended a new air service be formed that would be on a level with the Army and Royal Navy . The new air service was to receive direction from a new ministry and on 29 November 1917 the Air Force Bill received Royal Assent and the Air Ministry was formed just over a month later on 2 January 1918. Lord Rothermere

3663-512: The 10-ton Grand Slam could be carried. Barnes Wallis , deputy chief aircraft designer at Vickers , spent much time thinking about weapons that might shorten the war. He conceived his “Spherical Bomb, Surface Torpedo” after watching his daughter flip pebbles over water. Two versions of the ' bouncing bomb ' were developed: the smaller Highball was to be used against ships and attracted essential British Admiralty funding for his project. A 1,280 lb (580 kg) flying torpedo, of which half

3774-687: The Air Committee had to be ratified by the Admiralty Board and the Imperial General Staff and, in consequence, the Committee was not particularly effective. The increasing separation of army and naval aviation from 1912 to 1914 only exacerbated the Air Committee's ineffectiveness and the Committee did not meet after the outbreak of the First World War . By 1916 the lack of co-ordination of

3885-537: The Air Ministry. He was interested in developing air links to the Empire and Dominion countries, particularly India and South Africa. He negotiated a subsidy from the Treasury for Imperial Airways to start a service from Cairo to India. Hoare, with his wife Lady Maud, flew on the inaugural 13-day flight to Delhi, leaving Croydon on 26 December 1926 and arriving on 8 January 1927. The air route to Cape Town, after much negotiation,

3996-686: The Air Staff and Sir Rosslyn Wemyss First Sea Lord as to the nature of the relationship between the Air Force and Air Ministry and the Navy and the Admiralty. In 1919 the Air Ministry formally took control of supply, design and inspection of all aircraft (aeroplanes and airships) from the Ministry of Munitions. This helped put the existence of Air Ministry on a firmer footing. Throughout 1919 Churchill persistently supported an independent air force. He presented

4107-555: The Army authorities were ready and willing to provide information and take part in meetings, the Navy were often absent from Board meetings and frequently refused to provide information on naval aviation. In January 1917 the Prime Minister David Lloyd George replaced the chairman Lord Curzon with Lord Cowdray . Godfrey Paine , who served in the newly created post of Fifth Sea Lord and Director of Naval Aviation, sat on

4218-531: The B-17G model. In order to assemble combat boxes of several aircraft, and later combat wings formed of a number of boxes, assembly ships were used to speed up formation. Even this extra firepower, which increased empty weight by 20% and required more powerful versions of the Wright Cyclone engine, was insufficient to prevent serious losses in daylight. Escort fighters were needed but the RAF interceptors such as

4329-611: The British Air Ministry proceeded to formulate and release Specification B.14/43 , which sought an improved piston-engined heavy bomber to replace the wartime four-engine bombers, the Short Stirling , the Handley Page Halifax , and the Avro Lancaster . One Lincoln B Mk XV pattern aircraft was completed in Canada by Victory Aircraft ; a follow-up order for a total of six RCAF variants was cancelled shortly following

4440-406: The Committee, stating that "It appears to me quite impossible to bring the two wings closer together ... unless and until the whole system of the Air Service is changed and they are amalgamated into one service." The Joint War Air Committee was composed as follows: Advisory Members were also appointed as required. The next attempt to establish effective co-ordination between the two air services

4551-408: The Government Aircraft Factory (GAF), to construct the earlier Lancaster Mk III. In its place, it was decided to proceed with manufacturing a variant of the Lincoln I, re-designated the Lincoln Mk 30, to replace the Consolidated Liberators . This model was manufactured between 1946 and 1949, and is the largest aircraft ever constructed in Australia. Orders for a total of 85 Mk 30 Lincolns were placed by

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4662-450: The I.T.P. contract papers for a Wolseley radial aero engine, which would have required re-orientation of their offices with an army of chartered accountants, he decided to deal only with the War Office and the Admiralty, not the Air Ministry. So the aero engine project was abandoned in 1936, see Airspeed . Nevil Shute Norway wrote that the loss of such a technically advanced engine was a great loss to Britain as well as Airspeed, and blamed

4773-560: The Lincoln had proceeded relatively smoothly. On 9 June 1944, the prototype conducted its maiden flight from Ringway Airport. Testing of the prototype quickly proved it to have favourable flight characteristics. In February 1945, the first production Lincoln was completed. The type was mainly produced at Avro's Woodford, Cheshire and Chadderton Lancashire factories; additional aircraft were also constructed by Armstrong Whitworth at their Coventry facilities. Separate production lines were also established in Canada and Australia, although, as

4884-434: The Lincoln was replaced by a new generation of bombers using jet propulsion . In 1967, the last Lincoln bombers in Argentinian service were retired. The Avro Lincoln originated from a design produced by Roy Chadwick as a development of the earlier Lancaster bomber which had been produced with the purpose of conforming with the requirements of the Specification B.14/43. Known initially as the Lancaster IV and Lancaster V ,

4995-446: The MR.Mk 31 standard, which included an updated radar. Further aircraft were also derived from the Lincoln. A dedicated maritime patrol aircraft , designated the Avro Shackleton , was developed for the RAF and the South African Air Force (SAAF). Additionally, Avro decided to develop a commercial airliner, known as the Tudor , which harnessed elements of the Lincoln, such as its wings, in combination with various new elements, such as

5106-413: The RAAF, although only 73 were produced. The first five Australian examples ( A73–1 to A73–5 ), were assembled at Fishermans Bend using a large proportion of imported British-made components. On 17 March 1946, A73-1 conducted its début flight; the first entirely Australian-built Lincoln, A73-6 , was formally delivered in November 1946. The Mk 30 initially used four Merlin 85 engines, this arrangement

5217-503: The Tirpitz on November 12, 1944. Upkeep, the larger version of the bouncing bomb , was used to destroy the Mohne and Eder dams by Lancasters from the specially recruited and trained No. 617 Squadron RAF , often known as "the Dam Busters", under Wing Commander Guy Gibson . In March and April 1945, as the war in Europe was ending, Lancasters dropped Grand Slams and Tallboys on U-boat pens and railway viaducts across north Germany. At Bielefeld more than 100 yards (91 m) of railway viaduct

5328-402: The UK, from 1919 it being the government department responsible for the Meteorological Office . As a result of the need for weather information for aviation, the Meteorological Office located many of its observation and data collection points on RAF stations . In the 1930s, the Air Ministry commissioned a scientific study of propagating electromagnetic energy which concluded that a death ray

5439-442: The USAF responded with daylight bomber raids on supply lines through North Korea. B-29 Superfortresses flew from Japan on behalf of the United Nations , but the supply line for North Korea's army from the Soviet Union was physically and politically out of reach: North Korea for the most part lacked worthwhile strategic targets of its own. The Soviet-backed Northern forces easily routed the South Korean army. The distance to North Korea

5550-401: The United States of America and the Russian Federation defined a "heavy bomber" by two characteristics: Some notable heavy bombers are listed below Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force , that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of

5661-410: The Universities. The Air Ministry was also responsible for civil aviation. Early on Hoare set up the Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Hubert Hambling to look at the system of subsidies to competing air lines. They reported in February 1923, favouring a single commercial company to run Britain's air routes. In March 1924 Imperial Airways was created from a merger of

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5772-447: The White Paper, largely written by Sir Hugh Trenchard , on the future of the RAF on 12 December 1919. It was this White Paper that was to be the effective charter for the RAF and Air Ministry in subsequent years. In February 1921 Lloyd George appointed Churchill to the Colonial Office and appointed his Chief Whip, Frederick Guest as Secretary of State for Air on 1 April. During his eighteen months in office he played "a minor part in

5883-401: The absence of British heavy bombers, 20 United States Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses were lent to the RAF, which during July 1941 commenced daylight attacks on warships and docks at Wilhelmshaven and Brest. These raids were complete failures. After eight aircraft were lost due to combat or breakdown and with many engine failures, the RAF stopped daylight bombing by September. It

5994-406: The adoption of a pressurised fuselage , to perform passenger operations. During 1945, the RAF received its first Lincoln, which was delivered to No. 57 Squadron based at RAF East Kirkby , Lincolnshire . In August 1945, No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron began to re-equip with the Lincoln at RAF Spilsby , Lincolnshire. However, No. 75 (NZ) Sqn had received just three aircraft prior to VJ Day , and

6105-443: The aircraft to be unreliable, under-powered and hastened its withdrawal from service. Reaching squadrons early in 1942, the redesigned bomber with four Merlin engines and longer wings was renamed Avro Lancaster ; it could deliver a 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) load of bombs or up to 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) with special modifications. The Lancaster's bomb bay was undivided, so that bombs of extraordinary size and weight such as

6216-435: The aircraft with a 13-hour flight endurance , and a modified bomb bay to accommodate torpedoes . According to pilot feedback, the Lincoln Mk 31 was particularly difficult to land at night, as the bomber had a tailwheel undercarriage and the long nose obstructed the pilot's view of the runway. In 1952, 18 aircraft were rebuilt to this standard, and were reallocated new serial numbers accordingly. Ten were subsequently upgraded to

6327-408: The board and this high level representation from the Navy helped to improve matters. Additionally, as responsibility for the design of aircraft had been moved out of single service hands and given to the Ministry of Munitions , some of the problems of inter-service competition were avoided. The Air Board initially met in the Hotel Cecil on the Strand , familiarly known as the "Hotel Bolo". This

6438-419: The bombardier's clear nose glazing as "cheek" positions, or midway along the rear fuselage sides as "waist" positions. U.S. bombers carried .50 caliber machine gun , and dorsal (spine/top of aircraft) and ventral (belly/bottom of aircraft) guns with powered turrets . All of these machine guns could defend against attack when beyond the range of fighter escort; eventually, a total of 13 machine guns were fitted in

6549-608: The bombers were restricted to night interdiction and concentrated on destroying supply routes, including the bridges over the Yalu river into China. By the 1960s, manned heavy bombers could not match the intercontinental ballistic missile in the strategic nuclear role. More accurate precision-guided munitions ("smart bombs"), nuclear -armed missiles or bombs were able to be carried by smaller aircraft such as fighter-bombers and multirole fighters . Despite these technological innovations and new capabilities of other contemporary military aircraft , large strategic bombers such as

6660-494: The bombers were then switched to low-level, nighttime incendiary attacks for which they had not originally been designed (one variant, the B-29B was specially modified for low altitude night missions by removal of armament and other equipment). Japan burned furiously from the B-29 incendiary raids. On August 6, 1945, B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, B-29 Bockscar dropped another on Nagasaki. The war ended when Japan announced its surrender to

6771-495: The changes included the addition of Lancastrian nose and tail cones, additional fuel tanks, and removal of armament; this led to the aircraft becoming the first Avro Lincolnian. Modified as such, the aircraft received a civilian registration and was named Cruz del Sur ; it undertook its first aerial supply flight to the Antarctic San Martín Base in December 1951. Lincolns were frequently employed as testbeds in new jet engine development. RF403 , RE339/G and SX972 flew with

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6882-433: The design and the supply of materiel for the two air services. This committee was titled the Joint War Air Committee, and its chairman was Lord Derby . It was also at the meeting on 15 February that Lord Curzon proposed the creation of an Air Ministry. As with the pre-war Air Committee, the Joint War Air Committee lacked any executive powers and therefore was not effective. After only eight sittings, Lord Derby resigned from

6993-467: The desperate struggle to maintain the air force's institutional independence in the face of hostile attacks from the War Office and the Admiralty". More importantly in the long term he was also responsible for the appointment of Sir Sefton Brancker to develop civil aviation. With the fall of Lloyd George Sir Samuel Hoare became the Secretary of State for Air in October 1922 under Bonar Law . On Law's death Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister and gave

7104-532: The discovery of corrosion in the wing spars led to the type's premature retirement in 1961. The Lincoln MR.Mk 31 was the final variant to see service in Australia. From 1947, the Lincoln bomber served with the Fuerza Aerea Argentina ; Argentina had procured a total of 30 aircraft, together with a batch of 15 secondhand Lancasters. The adoption of the Lincoln effectively gave Argentina the most powerful bombing force in South America. Eighteen of these Lincolns were newly built, along with twelve ex-RAF aircraft. In 1947,

7215-408: The end of hostilities. Along with two additional Lincoln (Mk I and Mk II) aircraft on loan from the RAF, the type was briefly evaluated postwar by the RCAF. The Lancaster V/Lincoln II differed mainly in that it was fitted with Merlin 68A engines. Prior to the Lincoln being developed, the Australian government had already formulated plans for its Department of Aircraft Production (DAP), later known as

7326-520: The envisioned aircraft, while bearing considerable similarity to the Lancaster, featured numerous improvements, such as the adoption of stronger, longer span, higher aspect ratio (10.30 compared with 8.02) wings along with two-stage supercharged Rolls-Royce Merlin 85 engines fitted within Universal Power Plant (UPP) installations. The new bomber also possessed an enlarged fuselage that accommodated increased fuel and bomb loads and allowed up to 11 tons of various armaments and equipment fittings including

7437-400: The four detached crews and aircraft became No. 1426 Flight RAF , officially a photographic reconnaissance unit. It was later sent to Aden , carrying out patrols in the lead-up to the Aden Emergency . As the RAF Lincolns became unserviceable, primarily due to progressive wear and tear, they were replaced by a variety of jet-powered aircraft. The Lincolns of Bomber Command were phased out from

7548-456: The four largest airlines. The third aspect of Hoare's time at the Air Ministry (after the R.A.F. and civil airlines) was to make public opinion sympathetic to air power and air travel. His much publicised flight to India in 1926-7 was part of this. He also realised the importance of the Schneider Trophy and was instrumental in making sure that the R.A.F was involved. Britain's winning entries in 1927, 1929 and 1931 were flown by R.A.F. pilots and

7659-434: The heavy bomber's once-central role in strategic warfare by the late 20th century. Heavy bombers have, nevertheless, been used to deliver conventional weapons in several regional conflicts since World War II (for example, B-52s in the Vietnam War ). Heavy bombers are now operated only by the air forces of the United States, Russia and China. They serve in both strategic and tactical bombing roles. The first heavy bomber

7770-439: The idea of a university air officer training corps, a sort of Territorial Army for the R.A.F. Hoare and particularly his well connected Parliamentary Private Secretary the academic Sir Geoffrey Butler, then created University Air Squadrons , at Cambridge University then at Oxford University in October 1925, without, however the militarism of the Officer Training Corps and in close collaboration with scientific and engineering work of

7881-400: The initial design suitable for bombing and it was first used on a variety of VIP transport and maritime patrol missions. Its long range, however, persuaded the USAAF to send 177 Liberators from Benghazi in Libya to bomb the Romanian oilfields on August 1, 1943, in Operation Tidal Wave . Due to navigational errors and alerted German flak batteries and fighters, only half returned to base although

7992-578: The largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs ) and longest range ( takeoff to landing ) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the largest and most powerful military aircraft at any point in time. In the second half of the 20th century, heavy bombers were largely superseded by strategic bombers , which were often even larger in size, had much longer ranges and were capable of delivering nuclear bombs . Because of advances in aircraft design and engineering — especially in powerplants and aerodynamics —

8103-593: The logistics (including transport of fuel for the B-29 fleet over the Himalayan range ) of flying from these remote, primitive airfields were complicated and costly. The island of Saipan in the Marianas was assaulted to provide Pacific air bases from which to bomb Japanese cities . Initial high-level, daylight bombing raids using high-explosive bombs on Japanese cities with their wood and paper houses produced disappointing results;

8214-599: The mid-1950s and had been completely replaced by jet bombers by 1963. The last Lincolns in RAF service were five operated by No. 151 Squadron, Signals Command, at RAF Watton , Norfolk , which were retired on 12 March 1963. From late 1946, Australian-built Lincolns were phased into No. 82 Wing , based at RAAF Base Amberley , Ipswich, Queensland . The type quickly replaced the Liberator bombers that had been operated by 12 , 21 and 23 Squadrons. In February 1948, these units were renumbered 1 , 2 and 6 Squadrons respectively;

8325-503: The military and, more specifically, the disbanding of many squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a part of cost-saving measures. A new emphasis was soon placed on 'quality over quantity' during the rationalisation process, seeking to employ fewer but more capable aircraft to perform their envisioned roles; while there was no longer any urgency in bringing new types of aircraft into service, limited procurement of equipment that fell within this ethos did proceed. In accordance with this aim,

8436-423: The nature of military aviation and strategy . After the 1950s intercontinental ballistic missiles and ballistic missile submarines began to supersede heavy bombers in the strategic nuclear role. Along with the emergence of more accurate precision-guided munitions ("smart bombs") and nuclear -armed missiles , which could be carried and delivered by smaller aircraft, these technological advancements eclipsed

8547-419: The over-cautious high civil servants of the Air Ministry. When he had asked Lord Nuffield to retain the engine, Nuffield said: I tell you, Norway ... I sent that I.T.P. thing back to them, and I told them they could put it where the monkey put the nuts! In later years the actual production of aircraft was the responsibility of the Ministry of Aircraft Production (1940–46), the Ministry of Supply (1946–59),

8658-704: The position Cabinet status in May 1923, and Hoare remained in the post until January 1924, when a Labour government took power. Lord Thomson was made Secretary of State for Air. A supporter of airships, Thomson was responsible for the Imperial Airship Scheme , which involved the construction of R101 at the Royal Airship Works at Cardington. After the fall of the MacDonald government in November 1924 Hoare returned to

8769-510: The powerplant seriously delayed the B-29's operational service debut. The aircraft had four remotely operated twin-gun turrets on its fuselage , controlled through an analog computer sighting system; the operator could use any of a trio of Perspex ball stations. Only the tail gunner manually controlled his gun turret station in the rear of the airplane. B-29s were initially deployed to bases in India and China, from which they could reach Japan; but

8880-560: The size of payloads carried by heavy bombers has increased at rates greater than increases in the size of their airframes. The largest bombers of World War I , the Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeuge of Germany, could carry a payload of up to 4,400 pounds (2,000 kg) of bombs; by the latter half of World War II , the Avro Lancaster (introduced in 1942) routinely delivered payloads of 14,000 pounds (6,400 kg) (and sometimes up to 22,000 lb (10,000 kg)) and had

8991-604: The standard heavy bomber in the Pacific and the only one used by the RAAF. The SAAF used Liberators to drop weapons and ammunition during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The Avro Manchester was a twin-engine bomber powered by the ambitious 24-cylinder Rolls-Royce Vulture , but was rapidly redesigned for four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines due to technical problems with the Vulture which caused

9102-477: The teams partially subsidised by the Air Ministry. The Air Ministry issued specifications for aircraft that British aircraft companies would supply prototypes to. These were then assessed, if ordered the Ministry assigned the aircraft name. (see List of Air Ministry specifications ). The ordering procedure used I.T.P. (Intention to Proceed) contract papers; these specified a maximum fixed price, which could (after investigation) be less. But when Lord Nuffield got

9213-534: The technical problems of the larger Rolls-Royce Vulture emerged in the Avro Manchester . The Halifax joined squadrons in November 1940 and flew its first raid against Le Havre on the night of 11–12 March 1941. British heavy bomber designs often had three gun turrets with a total of 8 machine guns . In January 1941, the Short Stirling reached operational status and first combat missions were flown in February. It

9324-491: The two posts of Secretary of State for War , which was a Cabinet position, and Secretary of State for Air both of which he accepted. This combination under one person by was criticised in both the press and Parliament. However, Churchill re-iterated that the continued "integrity, the unity, the independence of the Royal Air Force will be sedulously and carefully maintained". During 1919 it was also decided that civil aviation

9435-427: The type entered service with I Grupo de Bombardeo of V Brigada Aérea . By the beginning of 1965, eleven of these remained in operational use, the majority of these were retired during the next year. In 1967, the final examples of the Lincoln were retired. The Argentine aircraft were used in bombing missions against domestic rebels. Lincolns were deployed during an attempted military coup conducted in September 1951,

9546-647: The type was also used by both the government and rebel forces during the 1955 Revolución Libertadora coup which resulted in Argentinian President Juan Perón being deposed. Argentine Lincolns were also used to conduct supply airdrops in support of Argentine operations in the Antarctic region. In 1948, one of the bombers was returned to Avro for modification at RAF Langar in Nottinghamshire to allow it to operate these Antarctic support flights;

9657-518: The war, German industrial production actually increased , despite a sustained Allied bombing campaign. As the German Luftwaffe 's main task was to support the army, it never developed a successful heavy bomber. The prime proponent of strategic bombing, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff General Walther Wever , died in an air crash in 1936 on the very day that the specification for the Ural bomber (later won by

9768-469: The war, bombers continually managed to strike their targets, but suffered unacceptable losses in the absence of careful planning and escort fighters . Only the later de Havilland Mosquito light bomber was fast enough to evade fighters. Heavy bombers needed defensive armament for protection, which reduced their effective bomb payload. The second tenet was that strategic bombing of industrial capacity, power generation, oil refineries, and coal mines could win

9879-512: The wars, aviation opinion fixed on two tenets. The first was that “ the bomber will always get through .” The speed advantage of biplane fighters over bombers was insignificant, and it was believed that they would never catch them. Furthermore, there was no effective method of detecting incoming bombers at sufficiently long range to scramble fighters on an interception course. In practice, a combination of new radar technology and advances in monoplane fighter design eroded this disadvantage. Throughout

9990-594: The way to the target and back. Losses were reduced to 247 out of 3,500 sorties, still devastating but accepted at the time. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator and later version of the Fortress carried even more extensive defensive armament fitted into Sperry ball turrets . This was a superb defensive weapon that rotated a full 360 degrees horizontally with a 90-degree elevation. Its twin M2 Browning machine guns had an effective range of 1,000 yards (910 m). The Liberator

10101-501: Was Torpex torpedo explosive, it was developed specifically to sink the Tirpitz which was moored in Trondheim fjord behind torpedo nets. Development delays in the 'bouncing bomb' meant that another Barnes Wallis invention, the 5-ton Tallboy was deployed instead; two Tallboys dropped by Avro Lancasters from 25,000 ft (7,600 m) altitude hit at near- supersonic speed and capsized

10212-654: Was a humorous reference to Bolo Pasha (shot for treason in 1918 by the French government) whose attempts to undermine the French war effort with German-funded newspaper propaganda were likened to the unhelpful rivalry between the RFC and the RNAS. Despite attempts at reorganization of the Air Board, the earlier problems failed to be completely resolved. In addition, the growing number of German air raids against Great Britain led to public disquiet and increasing demands for something to be done. As

10323-721: Was appointed the first Air Minister . On 3 January, the Air Council was constituted as follows: The Air Ministry continued to meet in the Hotel Cecil on the Strand. Later, in 1919, it moved to Adastral House on Kingsway . The creation of the Air Ministry resulted in the disestablishment of the Army Council 's post of Director-General of Military Aeronautics. In 1919 the RAF and the Air Ministry came under immense political and inter service pressure for their very existence, particularly in

10434-532: Was based on the successful Short Sunderland flying boat and shared its Bristol Hercules radial engines, wing, and cockpit with a new fuselage. It carried up to 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) of bombs—almost twice the load of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress —but over just a 300-mile (480 km) radius. Due to its thick, short wing it was able to out-turn the main German night fighters, the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and

10545-737: Was clear that the B-17C model was not combat ready and that its five machine guns provided inadequate protection. Combat feedback enabled Boeing engineers to improve the aircraft; when the first model B-17E began operating from English airfields in July 1942, it had many more defensive gun positions including a vitally important tail gunner. Eventually, U.S. heavy bomber designs, optimized for formation flying, had 10 or more machine guns and/or cannons in both powered turrets and manually operated flexible mounts to deliver protective arcs of fire. These guns were located in tail turrets , side gun ports either just behind

10656-657: Was deployed on operations during the 1950s. RAF squadrons equipped with the type fought against guerrilla fighters during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya; the RAF and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also operated the Lincoln during the Malayan Emergency . The type also saw significant peacetime service with the RAF, RAAF and the Argentine Air Force . Lincolns were also operated in civil aviation, including use as aerial test beds for aero-engine research. In RAF service,

10767-651: Was designed as an airliner . Igor Sikorsky , an engineer educated in St Petersburg, but born in Kiev of Polish-Russian ancestry designed the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets to fly between his birthplace and his new home. It did so briefly until August 1914, when the Russo-Balt wagon factory converted to a bomber version, with British Sunbeam Crusader V8 engines in place of the German ones in the passenger plane. By December 1914

10878-447: Was destroyed by Grand Slams creating an earthquake effect, which shook the foundations. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a development of the Fortress, but a larger design with four Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engines of much greater power, enabling it to fly higher, faster, further and with a bigger bomb load. The mammoth new Wright radial engines were susceptible to overheating if anything malfunctioned, and technical problems with

10989-512: Was disbanded quickly thereafter. During the postwar climate, the Lincoln quickly equipped the bomber squadrons of the RAF. Nearly 600 Lincolns were constructed to equip a total of 29 RAF squadrons, the majority of which were based in the United Kingdom. They were supplemented and partially replaced by 88 Boeing Washingtons , on loan from the USAF , which had longer range and could reach targets inside

11100-412: Was finalised in 1929, before he left office, but only commenced in 1932. His time at the Air Ministry was marked by several important developments that were to confirm the status of the Royal Air Force as a separate entity, play a part in the growth of civil aviation and to develop the awareness of the public about aviation. An early priority for Sir Hugh Trenchard , Chief of the Air Staff 1919–1930,

11211-524: Was impractical but detection of aircraft appeared feasible. Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated a working prototype and patented the device in 1935 (British Patent GB593017). The device served as the base for the Chain Home network of radars to defend Great Britain. By April 1944, the ministry's air Intelligence branch had succeeded in its intelligence efforts regarding " the beams , the Bruneval Raid ,

11322-875: Was known as the Avro 695 Lincolnian . One Lincoln Freighter Mk.2 G-ALPF, former RAF RE290, converted by Airflight Ltd. was used on the Berlin Air Lift by Surrey Flying Services Ltd. Four Lincolnian conversions by Field Aircraft Services for use as meat haulers in Paraguay were not delivered and subsequently scrapped. Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1947, Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918, General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering

11433-502: Was later changed to a combination of two outboard Merlin 66s and two inboard Merlin 85s. A further improved later version, designated Lincoln Mk 30A, had four Merlin 102s. During the 1950s, the RAAF heavily modified some of their Mk 30 aircraft to perform anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions, re-designating them Lincoln GR.Mk 31 . These examples had a 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) longer nose to house acoustic submarine detection gear and its operators, larger fuel tanks to provide

11544-482: Was shot down 20 mi (32 km) NE of Lüneburg , Germany by several Soviet MiG-15s as it flew to Berlin on a radar reconnaissance flight, killing the seven crew members. In November 1955, four Lincolns of No. 7 Squadron RAF were detached for duties in British territories in the Middle East. In Bahrain , they carried out border patrols of the then Trucial States . When 7 Sqn was disbanded in December 1955,

11655-511: Was the creation of an Air Board. The first Air Board came into being on 15 May 1916 with Lord Curzon as its chairman. The inclusion of Curzon, a Cabinet Minister, and other political figures was intended to give the Air Board greater status than the Joint War Air Committee. In October 1916 the Air Board published its first report which was highly critical of the arrangements within the British air services. The report noted that although

11766-503: Was the result of a proposal to assemble Fortresses in Consolidated plants, with the company returning with its own design of a longer-range, faster and higher-flying aircraft that could carry an extra ton of bombs. Early orders were for France (delivered to the RAF after the fall of France) and Britain, already at war, with just a batch of 36 for the USAAF. Neither the USAAF nor the RAF judged

11877-515: Was to be brought into the Air Ministry rather than being dealt with by either the Board of Trade or the Foreign Office. The Army and the War Office had largely agreed to the continued existence of the RAF due, in part, to the enthusiasm for the air service by the Army's political leader Winston Churchill. However, one of the main difficulties for the RAF and Air Ministry in 1919 was the opposition by

11988-488: Was to establish the officer cadet training college at Cranwell as a permanent establishment. It was Hoare's job to negotiate with the Treasury for the necessary funds. After much resistance Hoare managed to include a provision for permanent buildings in his estimates for 1929. The foundation stone of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell was laid in 1929 and formally opened in 1934. Trenchard had conceived

12099-530: Was too great for fighter escorts based in Japan, so the B-29s flew alone. In November, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s flown by Soviet pilots started to intercept the US bombers over North Korea. The MiG-15 was specifically designed to destroy US heavy bombers; it could out-perform any fighter deployed by United Nations air forces until the capable F-86 Sabre was produced in greater numbers and brought to Korea. After 28 B-29s were lost,

12210-453: Was used for daylight raids on naval targets, damaging a German destroyer. But after one was lost, the O/100 switched to night attacks. The uprated Handley Page Type O /400 could carry a 1,650 lb (750 kg) bomb, and wings of up to 40 were used by the newly formed, independent Royal Air Force from April 1918 to make strategic raids on German railway and industrial targets. A single O/400

12321-596: Was used to support T. E. Lawrence 's Sinai and Palestine Campaign . The Imperial German Air Service operated the Gotha bomber, which developed a series of marques. The Gotha G.IV operated from occupied Belgium from the Spring of 1917. It mounted several raids on London beginning in May 1917. Some reached no further than Folkestone or Sheerness on the Kent Coast. But on June 13, Gothas killed 162 civilians, including 18 children in

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