bumps'n'bombers

[mk]

Had a chance to go to the Bomber Command museum at Nanton, south of Calgary a few weeks back. A couple of times a year they pull their resident Lancaster outside and runup the old Merlins, usually in conjunction with other town events. This year it was called 'planes, trains and elevators', involving a tour of local garden railway sets and a tour of the last set of three elevators standing together on the prairies. They also had a model show and swap meet, to which I took a number of kits scored from an estate sale.









http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/


After the war, surplus planes were cheap. This pic shows the retrieval of some Lanc parts from a farm that one of them ended up on, being used for spare parts and scrap metal.
mike

[basketcase0302]

Cool story Mike, thanks for sharing!
That truck just looks like an F-100 hauling that much weight!

[Bumpside Collector]

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

[cdeal28078]

I think it IS an F100 looking at the rear dog dish caps.
I would LOVE to hear 4 of them Merlins fired up at the same time. I bet they are music to the ears. YOu know the P51 wasn't much of a plane until they stuck a Merlin under the hood. The Pratt and Whitney was OK but the Merlin made that plane kick butt.
clint

[mk]

You're right, the Merlin sure made the difference but the Allison engine was what the Mustangs were originally equipped with. The P&Ws were mostly radials at that time.
The two port engines on the Lanc are not running yet; one is in the final stages of reassembly in the shop. They're quite a fascinating engine to examine. Listening to the engines that were running was pure music to my ears, from the first cough and sputter to the steady roar...


mike

[papabug71]

To top it all off, it took Packard to mass produce the Merlin. RR couldnt keep up with demand. Merlins make a neat sound, but you can't beat the clatter of a big radial.

Neat story mk, thanks for sharing

[mk]

...and apparently, ol' Henry hisself turned down a chance to build them.
Lots of great reading on the bombercommandmuseum.ca website as well


mike

[two-bit]

Of the big V-engines the Merlins get a lot of attention.
Packard however built one monster of an engine for the American PT boats.
Check out the V12 4M-2500....http://www.pt-boat.com/packard/packard.html

I do agree about the radials. Hell of a sound. Don't forget to roll her twice with the coils off. (Otherwise they tended to bend con rods )

P&W 2800 Double Wasp in a T-bolt on a hard bank...sweet, sweet, sound.

Two-bit

[mk]

Just thought I'd add another Lancaster story. A local businessman purchased a surplus Lanc at the nearby airbase and hauled it over the fields to the highway where he built a gas station with it as the star attraction. Bomber Service was a landmark on the south end of Red Deer for years from '46 to '57.




Used to sit roughly in the area under the wing of this DC3 belonging to Buffalo Joe that I was privileged to ride in a few years ago.


The Lanc was sold to an interest from Portland in '57 that wanted to use it for a water bomber. After four new Merlins and a lot of work, it was ready to fly from a nearby field. They discovered a hydraulic leak while taxiing around and while the repairs were in progress, it unfortunately caught fire and melted the cockpit off. Enough to make a grown man cry...


mike

[PhantomoftheBumpside]

I think it IS an F100 looking at the rear dog dish caps.
....

clint

I think it IS a 71 Sport Custom like yours looking at the rest of it.