Avro
Lancaster Mk III GP*Y
H2S Radar
AvHistory - Version-4.00.164

The Lancaster is a B-grade plane. Cockpits are rudimentary, fully functional, but not final. The Bombadier posistion is also a limited graphic representation but like the cockpit is fully function & all bomb loads can be delivered. 

This aircrafts M3D was devloped by Ted "NachtPiloten" Kaniuka based on the original work of Mathias Pommerien.

The optional custom Lancaster sound package was provided for this aircraft by Des Braban & Doug Smith.

This plane is painted in the livery of the Heavy Conversion Unit 1661 stationed at Winthorpe. The RAF Heavy Conversion Units (HCU) were the final step in the training of the aircrews for Bomber Command, converting them to the heavy bombers that the Command flew and preparing them for operational missions bombing Germany.



HCU 1661 was formed on 8 Aug 1942 as 9 Conversion Flt.  It was upgraded to an full HCU unit & stationed at RAF Winthorpe from Jan 1943 to Aug 1945.  The 1661 aircraft carried one of two unit id's, GP & KB.



There are two things unique about this Lancaster.  First it is equipped with the H2S air to ground bombing radar set whose antenna required a bulge in the fuselage aft of the bombay.



The H2S radar was used in bombers of RAF Bomber Command. It was designed to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing.

On January 30, 1943, H2S radar was used by RAF bombers for navigation for the first time and so became the first ground mapping radar to be used in combat. Initially it was fitted to Stirling and Halifax bombers and provided ground mapping for navigation and night bombing.

This development using ten-centimeter radar, (actually 9.1 cm) was possible thanks to the development of the cavity magnetron. Later versions of H2S reduced the wavelength, first to 3 cm and then 1.5 cm at which wavelength the system was capable of detecting rain clouds.

Later in World War II the Luftwaffe night fighters used Naxos radar detectors to home on the transmissions of H2S.

The Americans adapted the X-Band version of H2S (H2S Mk VI) as H2X radar which they regarded as a significant improvement and which was tested by the RAF Bomber Command in 1945.

Second, like all driver/flight training vehicles in militaries all over the world it is marked with 'watch out for me colors'.  The twin red tails identify the aircraft as being manned by a crew in training.

The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). First used in 1942, together with the Handley-Page Halifax it was the main heavy bomber of the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving with RAF Bomber Command. Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing. The Lancaster was famous as the "Dam Buster" used in the 1943 raids on Germany's important dams.

The Lancaster Mk III had newer Merlin engines but was otherwise identical to earlier versions; 3,030 Mk IIIs were built, almost all at A.V. Roe's Newton Heath factory.

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