From: Douglas Greville (dgrev@iinet.net.au)
Date: Wed Sep 15 2004 - 00:23:57 PDT
Bob
> The Mighty Lanc is am amazing bit of kit in it's own right. I got a chance to
> get inside the one in Australia (D for Danny?) a few years back during a port
> call. I sat in the radio operators seat and tried to imagine howinthehell I'd
> get out with all the gear those guys wore...especially over that main wing
> spar.
A lot didn't. :-(
Most crew had to get to the parachute racks and attach the chute to
their harness, then get to the hatch to get out. With the plane in a
spiral dive, flat spin or other such terminal gyrations and high "G"
forces it often proved impossible to exit a doomed plane.
> A B-17 was down right roomy compared to the cramped confines of a
> Lancaster!
Except perhaps the tail gunner in the B-17. The tail gunner in the
Lanc could crank his turret around, open the rear doors and fall out,
providing of course that the turret was still able to be moved.
What I can never get over is that one Merlin in a Spit or Mustang had
very few controls, but put 4 of them in a Lanc and you ended up with an
engineers panel of impressive porportions and all sorts of complicated
procedures for starting and flight management of the engines (ignoring
all the other stuff such as fuel cross overs etc). From the drills
that I have read, it reads like starting a Lanc is about 24 times more
complicated than starting a Spitfire or Mustang. Perhaps they thought
the flight engineer would get bored otherwise?
Regards
Doug
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Armoured Vehicles Collector
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M8 Ferret
dgrev@iinet.net.au
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