Lancastrian

QANTAS VIRTUAL AIRWAYS

The Australian VA of choice

General characteristics

• Crew: 5

• Capacity: 9 passengers

• Payload: 3,560 kg of mail ()

• Length: 76 ft 10 in (23.4 m)

• Wingspan: 102 ft (31.1 m)

• Height: 19 ft 6 in (5.9 m)

• Wing area: 1,297 ft² (120.5 m²)

• Empty weight: 30,426 lb (13,800 kg)

• Loaded weight: 65,000 lb (29,480 kg)

• Powerplant: 4× Rolls Royce Merlin 24 piston, 1,250 hp (930 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 310 mph at 5,000 ft (500 km/h at 1,520 m)

• Range: 4,150 miles (6,680 km)

• Service ceiling: 23,000 ft (7,000 m)

• Rate of climb: 750 ft/min (230 m/min)

A close derivative of the war-time Lancaster bomber, the Lancastrian was fitted with streamlined nose and tail cones. Lancastrians were used as long-range freighters, VIP transports, and jet engine test beds by the RAF, as fast long-range airliners and mailplanes by Trans Canada Air Lines, BOAC, BSAA, QANTAS, and Alitalia, and as tankers by Flight Refuelling Ltd. Charter operators were Skyways and Silver City. Eighty-two aircraft were build, but most of them had vanished in scrapyards by the early nineteen-fifties. In the immediate post-war years, TCA offered twice-weekly Lancastrian flights from Dorval, Canada, to Prestwick and London, while BOAC and BSAA (under chief pilot D.C.T. Bennett) operated flights to Australia and South America, all based on a rather uneconomical ratio of five crew to up to fourteen passengers. The outbound leg from Hurn to Learmouth, Australia, took three days and well over fifty hours flying time, with Lydda, Karachi, and Ceylon serving as staging posts. BSAA's London to Buenos Aires flight took 56 hours.

please note:  this download does not include a Qantas livery, but it will be made available when it is available.  It is included as it is the first Lancastrian available on the Internet and as such is an important addition to Qantas historic downloads and one which has been keenly sought.

Crew of a Qantas Lancastrian after the inaugural Sydney- Johannesburg flight 1948

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Last updated 13 February 2007
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