Bomber Avro Lancaster MK.I/III - Revell 04300

The heavy bomber aircraft Avro Lancaster MK I, II and III were produced in 5 plants, mainly in the British A.V.Roe dyeing plant in Woodford in the years 1941-1948. In total, 7377 of these aircraft were produced. The most widely produced versions, MK I and MK III, were equipped with Rolls-Royce Merlin V-engines with a total power of 5,120 HP. The MK II version, due to a shortage in the supply of Merlin engines, was powered by Bristol Hercules radial engines. The speed of the bomber was 462 km / h. The crew consisted of as many as 7 people, the armament was 8 or 10 7.7 mm machine guns and 6356 kg of bombs. Later versions were equipped with a radar. Lancasters made 156,000 combat operations, dropping 608,612 tons of bombs. 3,249 aircraft were lost in action, only 35 aircraft managed to complete over 100 successful combat operations - the "record holder" performed 139 operations. The most famous missions of the Lancasters specially adapted for these missions are damaging the Ruhr basin dams with special rotary bombs (Wallis bombs) and sinking the battleship Tirpitz with heavy Tallboy bombs. Avo Lancaster bombers were considered the best heavy bombers of World War II. Adolf Galland, who was in command of the Luftwaffe fighters once said that "the Lancaster is the best night bomber of the war." Arthur "Bomber" Harris, commander of the RAF Bomber Command, said the Lancaster was a "shining sword". Lancasters were withdrawn from service only in 1963. After the war, they served as transport and even passenger aircraft in 9 countries, including Poland. Among other things, they co-created the air bridge, supplying West Berlin in 1948/49 during the blockade ordered by the USSR.