Avro Lancaster Bomber
The Lancaster was born out of the unsuccessful Manchester bomber. The original Lancaster was built onto a converted Manchester frame with four Merlin X engines attached to an enlarged wing section.
The first prototype Lancaster first flew on January 9th 1941. By May 1941, a second prototype was designed which was equipped with more powerful Merlin XX engines. In September 1941, the Lancaster was delivered to 44 Squadron for crew training and evaluation. It was an immediate success. The Air Ministry put in large orders almost immediately and the first production Lancaster flew in October 1941. Avro’s first contract was for 1,070 Lancasters but more soon followed. In fact, the orders for the bomber was too much for Avro and work was contracted out to other companies, such as Armstrong Whitley, Vickers Armstrong and Austin Morris. In all, 7,377 Lancasters were built. Original public domain image from Flickr