Lancaster Bomber Windows, had them, didn't have them, painted over them?

The painting-out of Perspex panels apparently didn’t stop completely with the deletion of the fuselage windows in the JB serial number block of Lancasters.

This is a photograph of a piece of painted Perspex from a (then) new Lancaster from the PB serial number block; it is approximately 8.5mm / 0.33″ thick.

I’m not sure where this Perspex panel was on the aircraft but it is slightly curved; could it even be part of the H2S radome (which I think were made from painted Perspex)?

I am speculating here, but. What if all two hundred Manchesters were built, but there was no war? These machines would have been totally redundant, but, if the could carry troops, then a secondary role would soon be created ferrying troops to the ME etc. At least the taxpayer would get some return for his money. So, some forethought was apparent, just in case.

Thanks for the info. I too heard about the Manchester Window thing but wasn’t sure if that was accurate or not.

I always thought that the Lancasters with fuselage windows started out as Manchesters.

Brilliant, thank you.

Every day is a schoolday here, and today I have learned something new. 😀

Moggy

All early Lancs had them- see Dambuster machines. Sometime mid-war official authority came to the conclusion that it was safer to paint them over (should a torch wielding crew member be seen by a night fighter etc.) but it was common practice by some units to paint over them before express permission was granted, particularly if they interfered with code letters. Some production centres replaced the perspex with metal inserts, then applied paint as usual. Sometime during the JB block (memory might be faulty here) they were deleted completely. You need a photo of your subject to be certain.
See the Britmodeller WW2 forum for more details.
The windows were a leftover from pre-war hopes that Manchesters/Lancs would be used for soldier transportation as a back-up occupation.