Avro Lancaster bomber

Oh yes, I remember it well! This is how the "pilot experience" started for me: 1967, Mildura Vic, Australia. From left to right Brian McLaren, instructor; Jaap Verduijn, student glider pilot; Karin Groen, honorary wingtip runner. It's a long time ago, but I remember the fun like it was yesterday!

The British Avro Lancaster bomber shares first place with the American Boeing B-17 as the best-known heavy bomber of World War II. This "shared position" is the result of each aircraft excelling in different aspects: although the B-17 was better armed than the Lancaster, the Lancaster could carry a much higher bomb load, and although the Lancaster delivered this larger load with a smaller crew, the B-17 crew had a better chance to get out alive in case the aircraft had to be abandoned by parachute. More than six decades after the end or WWII there are fewer and fewer octogenarians left who have actually flown either or both aeroplanes, so a comparison straight from the horses mouth is hard to get nowadays.

Fortunately I vividly remember the words of a now long-dead Lancaster pilot who had also flown just about everything else that was capable of taking to the air in the Second World War: "The Lancaster was the most boring bomber I ever flew. She had no character, no temperament, no vices... simply the dullest plane one could imagine flying. And that is exactly how war time pilots like their bombers: docile, trustworthy, doing exactly as they're told, without a will of their own".

Roy Chadwick can be called, without exaggeration, Avro's star designer up to and including WWII. Not only was he the father of the Lancaster, but also of the Lincoln, the Shackleton and the Vulcan jet bomber. His life revolved around aircraft, was filled with aircraft, and even ended inside an aircraft.

Since late 2001, when MSFS 2002 arrived on the scene, I've been an enthousiastic Microsoft Flight Simulator user. I'm specifically partial to old prop liners and bombers, among the latter the Boeing B-29 and... The Avro Lancaster being my absolute favorites! Right now we're deep into FSX (Flight Simulator 10), and by now there's little I can improve in "my own" simulated Lancaster bomber. I'm already looking forward to the eleventh edition of FlightSim!

Few WWII heavy bombers have made such an impression on aviation fans as the Avro Lancaster 4-engined heavy bomber. This majestic big bird, designed by Avro's chief designer Roy Chadwick, has the looks, the history and myth that are needed to make a historic aircraft live forever.

Although there are only two airworthy Avro Lancasters left in the world, it is still possible to sort of "fly" the historic Avro bomber. MicroSoft Flight Simulator X (MSFS X) offers many flight sim options to fly the famous Lancaster bomber from behind your own computer desk. I can tell you from my own experience that this can become very realistic indeed: with the right choice of software and equipment you'll be so deeply immersed in the simulation that you'll break out in sweat at difficult landings and manoeuvres!

Yes I know: simulation is not the "real thing". But as far as the old Avro Lancaster bomber goes, a good simulation is the only way for us mere mortals to experience at least some of the thrill.