And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Monday, March 9, 2026
An Avro Lancaster's bomb load; five rows of 1,000 lb bombs, four per row.
I agree with the other comments. 20,000lbs is pretty much max load and would require some specialized changes to carry that much (think Dambusters). I vote for 500lbers as that would better align with standard full capacity. Also, these bombs have 4 vanes whereas quick research shows 1kers with 6.
Beautiful weather in Pine Grove today. Goetz von Berlichingen
A typical bomb load developed to be a 4000lb "Cookie" to demolish buildings with blast and incendiaries. The Lancaster eventually carried the Grand Slam of 22.000 lb's but had some weight stripped out it. A very successful design that was easy to fly but hard to escape from in an emergency.
That's a load of 500lb bombs for 10,000lbs total. The Lancaster had a bomb release scheduler that dropped the bombs so that the balance of the aircraft didn't change as the load was released. The big bulge under the fuselage is the radome for the H2S ground mapping radar. Lancaster B MkI Specials were built with uprated engines and without the nose and upper turrets and the associated hydraulics and wiring to save weight so it could get airborne with a 22,000lb Grand Slam. Al_in_Ottawa
Those don’t look big enough to be 1000-pounders. My guess is 250lbs by the size. A 5000lb payload makes more sense than a 20000lb payload.
ReplyDeletelook kinda small to be a half ton each
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other comments. 20,000lbs is pretty much max load and would require some specialized changes to carry that much (think Dambusters). I vote for 500lbers as that would better align with standard full capacity. Also, these bombs have 4 vanes whereas quick research shows 1kers with 6.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful weather in Pine Grove today.
Goetz von Berlichingen
And now think that there were tens or hundreds of these planes on a typical WW2 bombing mission...
ReplyDeleteA typical bomb load developed to be a 4000lb "Cookie" to demolish buildings with blast and incendiaries. The Lancaster eventually carried the Grand Slam of 22.000 lb's but had some weight stripped out it. A very successful design that was easy to fly but hard to escape from in an emergency.
ReplyDeleteThat's a load of 500lb bombs for 10,000lbs total. The Lancaster had a bomb release scheduler that dropped the bombs so that the balance of the aircraft didn't change as the load was released. The big bulge under the fuselage is the radome for the H2S ground mapping radar.
ReplyDeleteLancaster B MkI Specials were built with uprated engines and without the nose and upper turrets and the associated hydraulics and wiring to save weight so it could get airborne with a 22,000lb Grand Slam.
Al_in_Ottawa