POSTCARD N.96 - FINLAND

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd November, received on the 5rd December 2022

Postcard image: Avro Lancaster
__________________________________________________________________________________

No, Finland has really nothing to do with A.V. Roe or with any of te many products that his aircraft manufacturing company produced since its inception in 1910, just 7 years after the Wright brothers flew the Flyer. 

Of these, one of the most famous for the role it played in the 2nd World War, is the Lancaster, the subject of the very nice postcard I got from Finland. Thanks a lot Vesa, and also thanks fro having sent it in an envelope with the beautiful EUROPA Finnish issue of 2022.

Developed from the twin engine Avro Manchester, the four-engined Lancaster was first flown on the 9th January 1941. 

Powered by four 12 cylinder  Rolls Royce Merlin XX engines (yes, it equals more or less  4 spitfire engines diving a single aircraft....), the Lancaster had a crew of 7 (pilot, navigator, flight engineer, wireless operator, bomber, turret gunners).

As the most important long range bomber of the RAF, the Lancaster would play a very important role in the bombing runs that targeted several German cities, including the infamous and controversial Dresden raids,  but  the most famous mission performed by the type was operation chastise, the bombing of the Ruhr river dams that took place in 1943.

 The type was used by a number of air forces around the world after the second world war, a period when  some surviving examples, that had become redundant, were transformed into civil transport aircraft, in the guise of the Avro Lancastrian, a conversion which was first done in 1943, while the war was still raging. 

 Though there are still some surviving examples in museums, only two Lancasters remain airworthy, one in the UK, part of the Battle of Britain memorial flight and another in Canada.