Jet powered Lancaster

[PAUL500]

New one on me, interesting how it became an airliner afterwards.

25 nene engines given to Russia for non military use! what muppet authorised that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQOJ45bNCqM&ab...

[Tony1963]

It helped keep the peace for a little longer. Maybe.

[Simpo Two]

PAUL500 said:

New one on me, interesting how it became an airliner afterwards.

25 nene engines given to Russia for non military use! what muppet authorised that?

The communist-sympathising Labour party. Paid the price later in Korea when the allies came up against the MiG 15.

[Tony1963]

The MiG-15’s swept wings were its great advantage.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

PAUL500 said:

New one on me, interesting how it became an airliner afterwards.

25 nene engines given to Russia for non military use! what muppet authorised that?

The communist-sympathising Labour party. Paid the price later in Korea when the allies came up against the MiG 15.

Not given - sold - under pressure from Rolls Royce. The Nene was such a good engine, that the RAF never operated an aircraft powered by it.

The Lancaster (as well as quite a few other aircraft) were used as engine test beds. However, no jet powered Lancasters became airliners.







Another piston engined aircraft that was used as a jet test bed was the Viking -

[Eric Mc]

Yes, the Lancastrian was the airliner development of the Lancaster - but it didn't evolve out of any jet experiments.

Another Lancaster airliner/transport derivative was the York -



And even the later Tudor owed a lot to the Lancaster and Lincoln -

[GliderRider]

The Avro Tudor was then given a nosewheel and four RR Nenes to become the Avro Ashton:

[Eric Mc]

And the fuselage still exists.

[PAUL500]

Wow some great further info thanks.

Love the fact Alitalia and South American airlines ran the airliner version

[Ayahuasca]

PAUL500 said:

Wow some great further info thanks.

Love the fact Alitalia and South American airlines ran the airliner version

One - Stardust - was lost in the Andes for around 50 years.

[Eric Mc]

The Lancastrian was operated by a number of airlines. It was very much a stop-gap until more suitable aircraft became available. It could only carry 12 passengers.

There was also an airliner version of the Halifax, the Halton -

[RizzoTheRat]

Eric Mc said:

Yes, the Lancastrian was the airliner development of the Lancaster

Where the Lancastrian, Lincoln and Shackleton all separately derived from the Lancaster or in sequence? I had in my mind that it went Lancaster>Lincoln>Shackleton but no idea where Lancastrian slots in.

[Eric Mc]

A lot of the work was semi parallel.

The sequence is

Manchester
Lancaster (various variants)/Lancastrian
York
Lincoln
Tudor
Shackleton
Vulcan

The Shackleton and Vulcan were being developed at roughly the same time.

As well as the Lancastrian, there were some back conversions of actual Lancasters to transport variants. These were not normally referred to as Lancastrians as they were not built as such originally.

These images show such conversions -

[PAUL500]

Apparently there were fields of Lancasters not far from me at RAF Llandow after the war, waiting to be broken up, I guess they were too far gone due to war use to be converted into airliners.

[Dr Jekyll]

Eric Mc said:

Another piston engined aircraft that was used as a jet test bed was the Viking -

Which in turn was developed from the Wellington.

[Eric Mc]

Indeed. I think at least one Wellington was used as a jet test bed.

[aeropilot]

Simpo Two said:

PAUL500 said:

New one on me, interesting how it became an airliner afterwards.

25 nene engines given to Russia for non military use! what muppet authorised that?

The communist-sympathising Labour party. Paid the price later in Korea when the allies came up against the MiG 15.

Yep.
Comrade Sir Stafford Cripps it was that told RR to sell the engines to USSR. He'd even been expelled from the Labour Party before the war because of his besotted view of communism and the USSR.
Not one of 'our' finest hours by any means.

[Eric Mc]

Arguably, the Russians made far better use of the Nene than the Brits ever did.

[yellowjack]

PAUL500 said:

New one on me, interesting how it became an airliner afterwards.

25 nene engines given to Russia for non military use! what muppet authorised that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQOJ45bNCqM&ab...

That video?

I can barely listen to the narration, and it's packed to the rafters with basic factual errors.

VM733? Never flew with RR Nene engines. Converted to fly with 2 × Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire engines it was first flown in it's new configuration in 1950.

Lancaster/Lancastrians were used to test all sorts of engines. de Havilland Ghost, RR Avon, RR Griffon (for Shackleton installation) and uprated Merlins.

Sorry, but "Sgt Vittie" is going on the list of Youtube content producers never to be watched again.


I particularly like the idea of a Vickers VC-10 powered by a couple of RR RB211s...

...although the testbed aircraft (XR809/G-AXLR) only had one RB211 on the left hand side, retaining two Conway engines on the right...
https://www.vc10.net/History/Individual/XR809.html
https://www.britairliners.org/airliners-article?ti...

[Mark V GTD]

PAUL500 said:

Apparently there were fields of Lancasters not far from me at RAF Llandow after the war, waiting to be broken up, I guess they were too far gone due to war use to be converted into airliners.

Not really - just far too numerous sadly.