BBMF Lancaster Photo?

It’s also the wrong type of turret cupola ;). NX611 has the mounts for a Martin turret. I suppose you could fit an FN50 or FN150 in that position and call it a B.VII interim, or do some structural alterations and mount it in the “conventional” position.

I think the French Lancs either had the turret removed, or were never fitted with it in the first place.

the gun turret on the panton’s lanc is a shell really, no guns and mechanism. I think these were either never there or removed to allow more people on board for taxi runs.

Hi Gerry,
That’s a great suggestion. If the BBMF don’t need the bits, may I suggest the Painton’s Lanx NX611 G-ASXX (ex); I have no idea of where they are up to, but they seem to do gret things with it. Alternatively, Bull Creek in Western Australia have recently got one of their Lanc’s Merlins running (on batteries) inside their hangar. Perhaps, they may be deserving?

Not trying to stick an oar in, just a couple of suggestions…

Didn’t the BBMF Lanc upper come as a donation from (don’t mention the war) Argentina in the 70s? I always thought that a little ironic in the eighties.

Cheers

Fluffy

Good afternoon (evening for you I guess 🙂

Are you aware of the parts that I’m talking about? The Gentleman that I’m in contact with is Jack Glasham. If you’d like I could email the pictures of the parts that I have.

Sincerely Gerry

I can’t remember the Lancs turret’s being hyd powered, but all 3 can be can be hand turned. Several years ago two of us remade and installed all the piping for all the turret systems. Each turret has its own independant hyd system ie pump, recuperator ( crude accumulator) and reservoir etc.

It could be possible we believe to get the mid upper working but it will cost quite a bit and unfortunately the cost is the problem.

Lancs turrets

Good topic guys. I remember her turrets were operational years back but were decommisioned as they cause wear on the hydraulic systeml Each turret is driven by an engine driven hydraulic pump and these are very hard to come by. I agree with BBMS decision not to use this system anymore. If they want to operate the turrets then they can use the hand crank or like you mention, build seperate hydraulic packs for each one.

my reputation remains intact! 😉

No nonsense Steve, I believe that hand-cranking is the only way to rotate them, right Fluffy?

isnt it possible to turn the turrets on a manual system, hand crank or something?

or am i talking nonsense? 🙂

Didn’t I once read that there was a plan to get the Lanc’s turrets moving on an individual air bottle system, if not via the actual hydraulics?

I understand that there are cost and increased maintenance concerns here, but think how amazing it would look to see powered turrets on the Lanc again!

🙂

Gerry,

That sounds like very interesting information. May I suggest a message to’Fluffy’ here on this forum as he is a senior technician with BBMF and you would be getting straight to the heart of the matter.

Upper Turret

Does anyone know if the upper turret of this Lanc (BBMF’s) is servicable or not. I’m coordinating the restoration of a B-25 here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and when we recieved the airframe and numerous parts there was an inordinate amount of spare parts well it turned out that there were and are several parts to an upper turret for a Lanc.

I’ve been in contact with a Gentleman east of here that travels to England and volunteers his time on the BBMF aircraft. After talking to him I’m of the impression that at this time the turret is unsevicable and with the parts we have it could be made to be servicable. Does anyone have any info on this?

Thanks sincerely Gerry

Thanks very much Lancman and Phil. That is what I was looking for. Very interesting to see this. The Lanc certainly looked odd without its turrets, and that wing makes things even more strange.

Dave

PA-474

Hi Dave.
Is this what your looking for.
Phil.

Dave, photos of the Lanc with the wing mounted are plentiful-follow the link below and scroll down a tad just to see the first one I found quickly online!

As far as I’ve read, she flew just as nicely with the wing on as without?!

If you’re interested in PA474’s early life, I can’t recommend ‘the book ‘A Lancaster At Peace’ by Ray Leach highly enough, it’s cheap and available via the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association, linked to from the BBMF site you’ve visited.

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/coa/aerogram/june-99/aerog-33.htm

That is an absolutely awesome shot, well done indeed

Cheers
Dave

Here’s another shot from last year

Hi Phil,

Nice photo, very emotive indeed. Thanks.

Dave

Lanc

Hi Dave.
Took this last year of BBMF’s Lanc, hope you like it.
Phil.