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Matchbox Airfix Lancaster bulged doors


PhantomBigStu

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I've not come across any photos that show the rear end of the enlarged doors to be any different that if a turret was installed or not, CMR do appear to be correct in the two options they supplied with their mk.ii conversion

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On 07/03/2017 at 10:39 AM, brewerjerry said:

Hi

    I only query it as :- 

the cookie was 30" in dia

the tallboy 38" in dia

  plus whatever 'hangar' was used for each bomb 

   So personaly i would have expected different sized doors

    cheers

      jerry 

   

Well The Hangar would add about 30-50  feet to the diameter,which  would not fit under the aircraft.  I would much prefer  just adding the height of the hanger (or suspension lug as its known)!:P

 

Selwyn 

 

(Running for cover and giggling!)

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I have read that the 8000 lb, 12000 lb and tallboy bombs were all 38" in diameter. The 12000 lb cookie was however 16'4" long and the tallboy 21 feet long. 

My guess is that (as someone has already suggested)  the BII bomb doors were probably meant for the shorter 8000 lb cookie which was fatter than the original 4000 lb device. I don't think BII's would ever had carried the 12000 lb bomb as it was a bit to late war and not so many were used as the smaller cookies. Hence as Steve has noticed that the BII bulge began some way further back along the door.

This doesn't answer the question of what the rear of the tallboy bomb looked like though. 

 

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Bombs Gone! (Macbean and MacTaggart, PSL, 1990) confirms (p.79) that the diameter of the 8,000lb and 12,000 HC bombs was 38" as opposed to 30" for the 4,000lb and explicitly states that "contrary to popular belief [the 8,000lb MC] was not the body sections of 2 4,000lb HC bombs" even if it did comprise "two 4,000lb cylindrical sections bolted together and fitted with a drum tail".   The 12,000lb HC was an 8,000lb HC with an additional 4,000lb section bolted on.  However "to ensure ballistic stability it had to be fitted with a 6-finned ballistic tail some 2 feet longer than the cylindical drum section of the 8,000lb bomb.  Thus, with the longer tail and an additional section, it could only be carried on specially-modified Lancasters" (p.80).  There is a nice drawing of the 12,000 HC but no dimensions are provided.  

 

As far as Tallboy is concerned, a dimensioned German drawing (p.146) gives the diameter as 950mm which comes out as 37.4" so prob 38" in reality.  Total length of the Tallboy is given as 6350mm which is 20'10", again close enough to 21'.  

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Here is another video, mostly showing a Lancaster being built, check the 4:35 mark and you'll see quite clearly unpainted bulged bomb bay doors:

 

 

 

Jari

Edited by Finn
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Great clip, that title shot, obviously at about the 7:55 mark in the clip appears to show the rear shape of the bulged doors well, I'm wondering if they areTallboy or Cookie doors, I couldn't make out the front shape clearly though I think I'm seeing the long taper as in Tallboy type rather than stepped back like the Airfix Mk II but the rear certainly agrees with the Airfix Mk II kit, though of course Mk I& IIs dropping the big cookies got the same doors.

This website has further info about this plane & the photo of the crowd around the aircraft after its roll out from the Victory factory clearly seems to show the long tapered doors, so were Tallboy doors simply a variation on the large cookie doors & not something unique to the Tallboy machines?

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
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