Avro Lancastrian

what is it?

The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a British and Canadian passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. The Lancastrian was basically a modified Lancaster bomber without armour or armament and with the gun turrets replaced by streamlined metal fairings, including a new nose section. The initial batch was converted directly from Lancasters; later batches were new builds.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 piston engines with propellers · 31.1 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 507 km/htop speed
• seats 13passengers
• size 29.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 91made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 83 years ago, in 1943.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 31.1 m: about 7 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1943

introduced

1945

retired

1960

status

retired

number built

91

role

passenger and mail transport

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Avro

engines

4× Rolls-Royce Merlin 24/2

crew

4

passengers

13

length

23.4 m

wingspan

31.1 m

height

5.4 m

max take-off weight

29.5 t

top speed

507 km/h

cruise speed

467 km/h

range

—

ceiling

7,407 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.