Canadian Warplanes 5: Avro Lancastrian

‍Avro Lancastrian

Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3388036)

Avro Lancastrian, Trans-Canada Airlines, Reg. No. CF-CMW, August 1946.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3583775)

Avro 691 Lancastrian, RAF (Serial No. PD328), "Aries", 26 June 1945.  

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3583776)

Avro 691 Lancastrian, RAF (Serial No. PD328), "Aries", 26 June 1945.  This aircraft had Lancastrian style fairings on the nose and tail.  It wasn`t a passenger or cargo carrier, but was used as a long range navigational trials aircraft.  Note the retained H2S radar.  It did not have passenger windows.

(IWM Photo CH 14380)

Avro Lancaster Mk I transport conversion, CF-CMS, at Prestwick, Ayrshire, after a flight from Montreal, mid-1944.  Originally a Lancaster B Mk. I,  RAF (Serial No. R5727), this was the pattern aircraft sent from the UK to Victory Aircraft in Malton to be used in the design and tooling up of the Canadian production of Lancaster Mk. Xs.  R5727 was converted as a transatlantic passenger and mail carrier by Victory Aircraft Ltd of Canada and operated by Trans-Canada Air Lines.

TCA operated 9 Lancastrians for the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service CGTAS starting July 1943. This aircraft, CF-CMS was originally Lancaster R5727, which came to Canada for use as a pattern aircraft by Victory Aircraft at Toronto airport, It was converted into Lancastrian configuration, and originated the service from Montreal (Dorval) to Prestwick 22 July 1943. This is an earlier flight, as when the service began the aircraft was flown in bare metal, no camouflage.

(AHFC 25023 Photo)

The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a Canadian and British passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.  The Lancaster was named after Lancaster, Lancashire; a Lancastrian is an inhabitant of Lancashire. 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.

(AHFC 25152 Photo)

(AHFC Photo 25011)

Avro Lancastrian, CF-CMV.  This one of only eight Canadian Lancasters modified to Lancastrian configuration at Malton, Ontario.  Their official designation was Lancaster XPP.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3383397)

Loading of trans-Atlantic airmail aboard an Avro Lancastrian of Trans-Canada Air Lines, Dorval, PQ, ca. 1947.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3388035)

Avro Lancastrian, Reg. No. CF-CMX of Trans-Canada Air Lines, Dorval, Quebec August 1946.

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