Roundels. Props. Fin flashes. These are things I like.

Another thing I like is the duality of man expressed through wonderfully designed machines which hold not only great beauty, but a soul, of sorts, whilst being designed to basically kill people and break things.

The Avro Lancaster is one of those machines.

Here is a simple B. Mk 1 replica, with some small inaccuracies and some details missing, mainly in the interests of not blowing up my old iPhone.

That being said, she comes with all mod cons - turrets that rotate, elevate and, when the trigger is pulled, ventilate (and / or immolate, depending if you hit the Hun's fuel tank or not). She has flaps, custom landing gear and a fully operational bomb bay full of things that go boom in the night.

I worked on this one for roughly a week, on and off, and believe it to be my most faithful replica to date.

For those of you who have been living under a rock and have no idea what the Lancaster is, here is a hastily cut and paste hack job from my friend and yours, Wikipedia;

"The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engined heavy bombers adopted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the same wartime era.

The Lancaster has its origins in the twin-engine Avro Manchester which had been developed during the late 1930s in response to the Air Ministry Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use". Originally developed as an evolution of the Manchester (which had proved troublesome in service and was retired in 1942), the Lancaster was designed by Roy Chadwick and powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlins and in one version, Bristol Hercules engines. It first saw service with RAF Bomber Command in 1942 and as the strategic bombing offensive over Europe gathered momentum, it was the main aircraft for the night-time bombing campaigns that followed. As increasing numbers of the type were produced, it became the principal heavy bomber used by the RAF, the RCAF and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within the RAF, overshadowing contemporaries such as the Halifax and Stirling."

So - the controls;

AG1 - Activate and arm nose turret. Use roll and pitch to orientate turret. With Camera 1/3
AG2 - Activate and arm tail turret. Use pitch and roll to orientate turret. With Camera 3/3
AG3 - Activate and arm top turret. Use pitch and roll to orientate turret. With Camera 2/3. Note that this turret can, in principle, shoot down the bomber to which it is attached. This is not advised, so take care.
AG4 - Drop bomb load
AG5 +vtol down - open bomb bay
AG6 +vtol down - drop flaps
AG7 - activate auto leveler. Can be used to keep her level during bombing runs and also handy for landings.
AG8 - lock and isolate / unlock and activate control surfaces.

Ok - the whole point of AG8 is to allow you to use pitch and roll to control the turrets, whilst keeping the kite straight and level so you can actually hit anything. The procedure being to deactivate AG8 before activating AG 1, 2, or 3. AG7 overrides this to a certain degree.

Ok - have fun, god speed and I'll see you tonight at angels 10 over Hamburg, old boy.

Pip Pip,