What was the fastest level speed for a Lancaster?

[Groggy]

What was the fastest level speed for a Lancaster?


What was the fastest level speed for a Lancaster? At Duxford it is stated to be 270mph, this is low by most published sources. They even give a 300mph underestimate for the TSR2 at both low and high altitude. When I suspect is that far out one has to check every thing else and the Museum loses credibility.

[pmjwright]

Hi Groggy.

That's a surprisingly tough answer! What commonly is published is the operational max speeds--i.e. at "normal weight" or "with typical bomb load". For these, I've seen anywhere from 260 to 287 mph at 15000 ft for a Mk.1. No doubt an empty Lanc would have been considerably faster, especially the later marks and those (post-war maritime patrol) with all turrets removed. But as bomb load increased with HP increase, published max speeds didn't increase. Lancaster Mk.X for example, max speed was 275mph at 15000 ft.

I'm guessing the fastest Lanc of all time may be this Mk.X 0:

http://www.airmuseum.ca/mag/051006h2.jpg

This aircraft was used as a test bed for the Orenda jet engine, later installed in the Canadair F-86 Sabre and the AVRO CF-100.

[Red Admiral]

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c84/AviationImages/lancaster_fast-1.jpg

This "fast lancaster" with more streamlining was supposed to be good for a Vmax of 350mph@?

A best guess for the other more standard crates at light load would be around 300-320mph.

[Lightning]

Hi Groggy,

Quoting you:
quote:What was the fastest level speed for a Lancaster? At Duxford it is stated to be 270mph, this is low by most published sources.

I'm not with my books right now, and don't have time for an extended web search, so I'll just post off the top of my head.

As I remember, the top speed usually given for the fastest B-17s was 310 mph. The B-17 was somewhat faster than the Lancaster, so I think that 270 mph for the Lanc is not too far off. Perhaps the plane was a little faster but not by much.

As far as the effects on speed of such things as bombload, external (or externally protruding) stores/equipment, etc. are concerned, that could lead to a long, drawn-out discussion with figures all over the spectrum. The Lancaster (for which I have a great deal of respect and liking), after all, was not known for its clean lines--only for its tremendous payload and ruggedness.

Regards,
Lightning