Lancastrian freighter ?

Terrific photos there, Spiteful!

The first two aircraft are those owned by Flight Refuelling Ltd. They were built by Victory aircraft in Canada for use by Trans Canada Airlines.

The third aircraft is a Lancastrian – Aries, which was used by the Central Navigation School, and it was the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe, apparently.

Lancastrian

Here are the pics I have, if they help. Is the last picture (from Jeffery Ethell) actually a Lancastrian though?

It appears to me to be a partly converted Lancaster retaining the H2S antenna and bubble

Thanks for clearing that up, Allan! I’ve done a bit of research on the Lancastrian lately, and I’d not been able to fit “Star Watch” into the picture.

Dave

I don’t have a copy of Arthur Pearcy’s book, but for what it’s worth, I think that the aircraft you describe is indeed Lincoln G-ALPF/RE290. The nose fairing on G-ALPF was built on the original Lincoln fuselage, not the deepened fuselage developed later for the failed meat carrier conversion of the Lincoln. Consequently the appearance of the fairing on G-ALPF was closer to that of the Lancastrians. And the fuselage pannier was a very obvious bolt-on underneath, not faired into the nose. ‘Lincoln at War’ pages 154/5 have a couple of good shots of G-ALPF before and after conversion. It was converted in 1949 and went on to complete 46 operations on the Airlift, 1 freight and 45 hauling fuel oil.

And Star Watch? Lancaster PP690 Loaned from 5MU, Kemble to BSAAC from 29.12.45. Mods at Bracebridge Heath (or Waddington) to nose & bombbay for freight. G-AGUL CofA 7250 1.4.46, named ‘Star Watch’. Sold to BSAAC Mar47. Ground-looped on landing at Heathrow on training flt, beyond repair, on unknown date

Hope this doesn’t serve to confuse further!

Allan

according to Putnams ‘British Aircraft since 1919’ all Avro 691 Lancastrains were built, or converted for pax use although some were used for frieght at the end of their lives.
BSAAC had 4 standard Lancaster 1’s converted into freighters. They had the elongated nose but were window less, and had no tail come just a painted over turrett. They only lasted around a year as they were very uneconomical.
However one of these G-AGUM was sold to Airtech Ltd at Thame for fitting of a pannier for the airlift.’GUM was scraped at Dunsfold 1949.

http://www.467463raafsquadrons.com/LancHistory/post_war.htm

That page should show the pic – the website doesn’t allow hotlinking.

That Lanc was QANTAS’s Lancastrian for transporting spare engines around – a different beastie, I think!

That one?

I’m led to believe this is a Lancastrian freighter, as “Star Watch” doesn’t appear on any of my lists of BSAA Lancastrians. It also seems to have the bulged bomb bay pannier as mentioned.