The Avro Lancaster is perhaps the most iconic aircraft of the Second World War. The mainstay of RAF Bomber Command, it symbolises all of the contradictions that their campaign encompassed – the horrors of war and terrible decisions needed, sacrifice, perseverance through great adversity, courage, and dedication to duty.
Avro’s chief designer, Roy Chadwick, had designed the twin-engined Avro Manchester to a 1936 specification for an aircraft also capable of being a torpedo bomber; while never used as such, the legacy of this brief was the Lancaster’s long, unimpeded bomb bay and tremendous structural
