Avro Lancaster Model

Wingspan: 19.75"
Fuselage Length: 13.25"

Hand-made and hand-painted, the wooden scale model of the Avro Lancaster that we offer is of museum quality. Carefully carved from mahogany by skilled craftsmen, every piece is sanded and primed many times until perfect. A final coat of clear lacquer seals in the intricate details which have been meticulously painted on by talented artists. Each model comes with a beautiful mahogany-based chrome pedestal and undergoes several stages of quality control before being put in its box. Rest assured that when our customers receive their orders, they are not just getting a display piece, but a spectacular work of art. The Lancaster model aircraft is ideal for both personal collections and gifts.

The Avro Lancaster was a four-engine bomber aircraft built for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It was equipped with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, giving the aircraft a top speed of 287 mph and a range of 1,660 miles. Together with the Handley Page Halifax, it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving with RAF Bomber Command. Affectionately called “Lanc” or “Lankie”, it became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties. Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it also excelled in daylight precision bombing. It gained worldwide renown as the “Dam Buster” during Operation Chastise in 1943.

When the United Kingdom's Bomber Command was given the difficult missions of destroying German dams in the Ruhr Valley and sinking the pocket battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord, their aircraft of choice was the Lancaster. The mission in the Ruhr Valley, codenamed Operation Chastise, was probably the most famous use of the Lancaster. Its story was later made into a film, The Dam Busters. The aircraft was also used by the RAF in Operation Manna in 1945, where the bombers dropped food into the Holland region of the occupied Netherlands to feed people who were in danger of starvation during the Dutch famine.

Aside from its primary bombing tasks, the versatile Lankie was also used for maritime surveillance, photo reconnaissance missions and, later, as an engine test bed platform. Its final delivery was in February 1946, but the plane flew for many more years in civilian guise and as a warplane in other nations. A number of Lancasters were preserved and can be viewed at museums, but only two remain in airworthy condition, although limited flying hours remain on their airframes and actual flying is carefully rationed.