40 missions sounds more realistic, although I was sure the caption/passage reads 40 hrs. I’ll have to check and make sure I’ve got it wrong. However, after having ha d quick read through it, I can see where you reference to hours comes from, as there is a short section on servicing which does state something along the lines of ‘…those aircraft lucky enough see 500 hrs…’ before they saw any sort of major serving. The intervals, apparently were 500 and 1000 hrs, by any stretch of the imagination, plenty of ops.
So what is/was the life expectancy of the Lancs main spar, as its probably one of the hardest worked, non-‘mechanical’ parts of the airframe?
I like the car market analogy, though and I can see its validity. However, the accountants might also say that, once it has become a ‘clasic’, its value increases in proportion to rarity and to some extent, its marque. Mind you, I’ve seen a few cars on the Historic Rally Car Register and they driven just as hard now as they were when they were new! The same doesn’t appear to go for classic aircraft, perhaps for obvious and necessary reasons!
Sign In
