The Avro Lancastrian In Australian Service

The success of the Canadian initiative proved the concept of the civilianised Lancaster as a fast passenger/mail carrier. Accordingly, A. V. Roe and Co Ltd put the Avro 691 Lancastrian into production in 1944. It was a more advanced conversion than the earlier versions and incorporated an additional 500-gallon fuel tank in the bomb bay putting that redundant space to good use. One of the prime intentions of the Lancastrian was that it would be placed into service between England and Australia. Twenty aircraft were acquired by BOAC and were earmarked for joint operations in conjunction with Qantas. BOAC crews flew to Karachi and Qantas operated the remaining part of the route to Australia. The initial Lancastrian carrying dual markings VB873/G-AGLF went to BOAC early in 1945 and soon after demonstrated its capabilities by flying England-New Zealand in 3½ days. These aircraft were registered G-AGLS to G-AGMM (there was no G-AGMI) and the maiden eastbound flight was flown from Hurn by Captain E. Palmer on 31 May 1945. A few days later on 2 June, G-AGLS left Sydney on the inaugural westbound service.

Some outstanding long distance flights made by Lancastrians demonstrated its superior long distance potential. It created a precedent by being the first British commercial aircraft with sufficient range to fly across the South Atlantic. The British had wished to operate such a service to South America for some time but their plans had been thwarted by the lack of a suitable aircraft. New ground was broken by G-AGMG when it left Hurn on 5 October 1945 under the command of Captain 0. P. Jones for Buenos Aires, Santiago ahd Lima. Regular services started the following year. A very long-distance flight was accomplished by a Canadian Lancastrian CF-CMW from Prestwick to Vancouver. The aircraft left Prestwick on 9 July 1946 and made a single refuelling stop at Dorval. Total time for the flight was 28 hours 23 minutes.

By the time Lancastrian production ceased at the end of 1946, 82 had been produced. Apart from airline use worldwide, they were used in quantity by the RAF and also served with distinction during the Berlin Air Lift. Modifications carried out by Flight Refuelling Ltd on nine aircraft enabled them to carry 2500 gallons of petrol or fuel oil. Other Lancastrians served as flying test beds for a variety of piston and jet engines such as the Griffon, Nene and Ghost. An RAF Lancastrian, VH742, fitted with Nenes outboard became the first commercial aircraft in the world to fly on jet power solely. During their comparatively short period in service, the Lancastrian proved a versatile aircraft but as more modern aircraft became available they were withdrawn from use and the surviving Lancastrians were scrapped during the early 1950s.

The long legged Lancastrian was ideal for Qantas’ routes. Qantas’ involvement with the type falls actually into two chapters. The first was as a joint operator with BOAC of the British registered aircraft on the Kangaroo Route and the secondly of four aircraft it acquired for use on other services. Passenger comfort on the Lancastrian 1 was rather questionable. The load of nine passengers by day or six in bunks at night were accommodated in a fuselage with windows on the starboard side and a blank wall on the port. Later marques sported port windows amongst other improvements. Certainly, the cruising speed of 230 mph was welcome and permitted an England-Australia service to be flown in 67 hours. A detracting feature was the small payload which varied from a maximum of 4845 lb over a short range to a mere 3597 lb payload over 4150 miles. Fuel carried over the latter distance was 3174 Imperial gallons weighing 22,853 lb. By contrast, the contemporary Douglas C-54 could carry 10,000 lb payload over 4000 miles using about 3000 gallons of fuel.

Undoubtedly the economic drawbacks of the Lancastrian must have caused the airline accountants to wring their hands in despair. In all fairness, it should be emphasised that the paltry civilian payload was no fault of the aircraft itself. As previously mentioned the Lancaster could carry an enormous weight. However the Lancastrian, compelled to utilise the available space in the fuselage above the floor, was severely restricted. Could not the British industry have come up with a better solution for the joint BOACI Qantas requirement? When one looks at the seemingly endless list of superb aircraft produced by Avro, Bristol, de Havilland, Hawker and Vickers Supermarine to name a few manufacturers, there can certainly be no doubting the British industry’s ingenuity. The inescapable fact is that Britain, of all the allied powers, had such a desperate fight for survival, that they did not have the capacity to devote the manpower to design an aircraft more attuned to civilian needs for the immediate post-war era. Hence the birth of the Lancastrian.

The BOAC/Qantas partnership operated the Lancastrian with great success. As a prelude to its introduction into service, the initial aircraft of a batch of five aircraft for Qantas, arrived in Sydney on 17 April 1945. These early Lancastrians were G-AGLSIT, G-AGLW and G-AGLYIZ. As the availability of aircraft improved the frequency was increased to twice a week between Mascot and Hurn. The service operated without serious mishaps except for the disappearance of Lancastrian G-AGLX on 23 March 1946. This aircraft, carrying five passengers and five crew under the command of Captain 0. F. Y. Thomas was on the leg from Ratmalana, Ceylon to the Cocos Islands. The last message reported the position 690 miles northwest of Cocos. An extensive search was carried out but no trace of the aircraft was located. One of the passengers was Jack Dobson, the son of Avro’s Managing Director Sir Roy Dobson. He had been flying to Australia to help arrange production of the Lincoln bomber.

Personal impressions by passengers of these aircraft give a vivid and valuable insight into what travel on the Lancastrian must have been like. I am grateful to Australian reader Mr Don Draffin of Melbourne who some time ago sent me a copy of a publication entitled ‘Eggcessive Speed’ written by his late father Mr E. P. Draffin. The title came about as Mr Draffin was justifiably impressed by the fact that two eggs given to him by his nephew were able to be speedily transported to England and eaten fresh three days later. Mr Draffin was the Managing Director of Disco Manufacturing Corporation of Melbourne, which manufactured AC-Sphinx sparking plugs. These two top quality Antipodeaneggs met their just end when Mr Draffin dined with Mr D. Bennion Browne, the Managing Director of the AC Sparking Plug Co Ltd at Dunstable within three days of leaving Australia.

Mr Draffin recounted how he flew from Melbourne to Mascot by ANA DC-3 sometime in 1946 for an overnight stop in Sydney before venturing out to Mascot again early the next morning to join the Lancastrian. He was suitably impressed by the size of the Lancastrian compared to the DC-3. After a 7. 30 a. m. departure from Mascot, the Lancastrian was over Katoomba about 15 minutes later and it then headed towards Gawler in South Australia for a brief refuelling stop before setting off again for Learmonth. Apparently, the Mascot runway had insufficient length for a take-off with the fuel required for the 2450-mile flight to Learmonth. The flight time to Gawler was just over three hours at an average speed of 233 mph for the 700 mile flight. After a comfortable 1750 mile sector to Learmonth at an average 221 mph, the Lancastrian arrived to greet its occupants with a 111° F day.

At Learmonth a crew change was made and the Lancastrian was refuelled for the long leg to Colombo. As this sector is flown at night the passengers have the rare experience of sleeping in bunks. The long seat accommodating the six passengers by day is converted to sleep three head to foot. If you were over 5′ 10″ tall you would find a fellow passenger’s feet under your pillow. Overhead three bunks were swung down Pullman style to provide the other three beds. After a 13¾ hour flight, Colombo came into view just after 9. 00 a. m. The crew changed, the passengers went to a hotel for a wash-up and the Lancastrian took on fuel for the flight to Karachi, 1600miles away. At Karachi, change of both crew and aircraft took place as BOAC operated the remainder of the flight which is via Lydda in Palestine 2200 miles to the west. After the final crew change at Lydda, the Lancastrian sets off for the final leg to Hurn, 2650 miles away. At Hurn the crew and weary passengers were subjected to temperatures several degrees below zero. The total flying time was 50 hours and elapsed time 62 hours. The passengers must have looked forward to a good sleep after the journey.

The return time to Australia had its interesting moments also. After take-off from Nagombo Airport situated 30 miles from Colombo, en route to the Cocos Islands, the Lancastrian developed engine problems after covering about 200 miles. Attempts to dump fuel met with limited success. The dump pipe refused to deploy on one side and did not behave properly on the other. Instead of lowering itself correctly part of the one operating dump pipe broke off. The dumped fuel then, rather than falling away under the aircraft, commenced to spray against the wings and engine. An emergency landing was made back at Nagombo and soon after, the offending dump system on the other side which had previously failed to operate, dropped its load on the ground. After a three-day stay the flight continued via Cocos, Perth then to Sydney.

The Lancastrians continued on the UK-Australia service until the Lockheed Constellations were introduced. The last Lancastrian service on the route carrying passengers took place mid-December 1947 and after that only mail and freight were carried until 1 May 1948 when the joint BOAC/Qantas operations ceased.

Qantas acquired four Lancastrians between July 1947 and January 1948 for use on some of its own services. The inaugural service to Norfolk Island under the command of Captain L. R. Ambrose took place on 14 October 1947 and continued thereafter on a fortnightly basis.

Lancastrian flights to Japan commenced on 16 December 1947 when Captain J. G. Morton departed from Mascot with his crew in VH-EAU. After intermediate stops at Darwin and Manila the flight terminated at Bofu on 18 December. This weekly service was increased to twice weekly by the early months of 1948. The absence created a rather cold existence at Bofu for the Lancastrians which were frequently snow and ice encrusted. As improvements to lwakuni were made Qantas moved its Japanese destination to that point on 4 April 1948 and finally the flights were extended to Tokyo some months later on 15 October. The Lancastrians operated the service for a fairly short time as Douglas DC-4s were introduced with the first aircraft arriving in Tokyo on 22 November 1949.

Although regular airline use dominated the Lancastrian’s role with Qantas, one of them participated in a notable long distance survey flight to South Africa. Qantas had been investigating the route for such a service and a submission by Captain W. H. Crowther was put to the Qantas board on 23 June 1948. Captain Crowther, Qantas’ Operations Manager, suggested that a Lancastrian be used flying Sydney-Perth Cocos Islands- Mauritius-Durban.

Some months later after the completion of all formalities, VH-EAS with a crew headed by Captain Ambrose departed from Mascot just after midnight on 14 November 1948. The crew of seven were accompanied by survey personnel led by Captain Crowther. The flight, which was the first from Australia to South Africa over the South Indian Ocean went without a hitch. The longest sector, which was 2670 miles between Cocos and Mauritius took 12 hours 40 minutes. The route flown differed slightly from the original proposal with the South African destination being changed from Durban to Johannesburg. After the various stops en route Johannesburg was reached on the afternoon of 20 November. The Lancastrians left Johannesburg for the return journey on 27 November and reached Sydney on 1 December. Although the route was proven, much work needed to be done to make it a commercial success. One of the areas requiring attention was the construction of a new airstrip on Cocos. The RAAF’s No. 2 Airfield Construction Squadron built an 8000-foot runway constructed of crushed coral and a proving flight was made by the Constellation VH-EAD ‘Charles Kingsford Smith’ which departed from Sydney on 25 January 1952. Regular services commenced some months later on 1 September 1942.

Certainly, the Lancastrians fulfilled an urgent need during the hectic post war years when speed was paramount and operating costs assumed a lesser importance. As Qantas gradually took delivery of its DC-4s and Constellations the Lancastrians were withdrawn from use. The last Qantas Lancastrian was scrapped at Mascot during August 1952 bringing a noble career to an end. In addition, Qantas operated the following 19 British registered in conjunction with BOAC: G-AGLS/T, G-AGLVIZ, G-AGMA/H, G-AGMJ/M.

Specifications of the Avro 691 Lancastrian 1 follow. Power plant: Four Rolls-Royce Merlin T24/2 of 1635 hp. Wing Span: 102 feet. Length: 76 feet 10 inches. Height: 19 feet 6 inches. Wing area: 1297 square feet. Weight empty: 30,426 lb. Weight gross: 65,000 lb. Max speed: At 53,000 lb mean weight, 295 mph at 3500 feet, 310 mph at 12,000 feet. Cruising speed: 230 mph. Initial climb: 750 feet/minute. Ceiling: 30,000 feet. Range: 4150 miles.