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To: Nowhere Man
although I've heard stories where we tried to bum a Lancaster or three to carry the A-Bombs to Japan.

Yes, that's true. The early gun-style A-bomb design (called "Thin Man") was too long to fit into a B-29 bomb bay. The B-29 had two bomb bays, and cutting the airframe apart to merge them was a big engineering problem given that the mid-fuselage wing spar sat in the area between them.

The Lanc had a very long (but shallow) bomb bay, where length wouldn't be an issue. There were other engineering challenges, but the aircraft was seriously looked at as a launch platform.

However the eventual gun-style design ("Little Boy") was short enough for the B-29. At that point the inquiries into using Lancasters were dropped.
28 posted on 12/28/2014 4:39:05 PM PST by tanknetter
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To: tanknetter

I looked up the stats and I think if we used the Lancaster, we might have to add some fuel tanks to extend the range since it only had a 2500 mile range.


32 posted on 12/28/2014 6:40:05 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
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