Avro Lincoln

By 1943 the designers were looking at ways of improving the already highly successful Lancaster bomber. Plans called for the use of the new Merlin powerplants with their two stage two speed superchargers and more streamlined annular radiators. To compensate for the extra forward weight the aft fuselage was extended by almost nine feet. The wing span increased to 120 feet with subsequent extra fuel capacity and the defensive armament was upgraded.

So radical were the overall changes that it was decided to give the aircraft a new designation, The Avro Type 694 Lincoln.

Although the prototype Lincoln made it's first flight on 9th June 1944 reluctance to disrupt the Lancaster production lines at that critical stage of the war meant that Lincoln production did not get under way till 1945 and, they did not enter Squadron service till after the war.

Post WWII the RAAF underwent a considerable reorganisation, men were de-mobbed, squadrons disbanded and aircraft scrapped on a wholesale level. In 1948 No.82 Bomber Wing was reformed at Amberley, comprising Nos.1,2 and 6 Squadrons, they were to be equipped with the Mk.30, an Australian version of the Lincoln built by GAF in Victoria. The first aircraft, A73-1, made from imported components, as were the next 4 aircraft had it's test flight in March 1946, a total of 73 Lincons were completed by1953

Number 2 and 6 Squadrons were the first to be equipped, 6 becoming the OCU and 2 the operational unit, 1 Squadron received it's aircraft shortly thereafter. By 1953 2 Sqn. had converted to Canberras followed in 1955 by 6 Sqn.

No.1 Sqn on the other hand retained it's Lincolns a little longer, in July 1950 it transferred to the RAF base at Tengah, Singapore to carry out strikes against the Communist Guerrillas on the Malay Peninsular, it remained there until returning to Australia in July 1958.

During the production run a number of changes were made to the specifications resulting in different marks of aircraft.A73-11to 25 were strengthened to allow a max. takeoff weight of 75,000Lb, A73-26 to 73 were further strengthened to allow MTOW of 82,000Lb, these would be Mk30As, the last 12 aircraft being converted to "Long Nose" Mk31s before production ceased.

Early use in England uncovered a problem with the three bladed propeller causing structural vibrations, this was overcome by fitting a four bladed unit. The Merlin 85B also proved to be unreliable, to such an extent that insufficient remained serviceable to allow normal operational flying, a short term fix was the use of Merlin 66 Spitfire engines at the out board stations ( they had no auxiliary engine gearbox drives). This situation persisted until the arrival of the more robust Australian built Merlin 102.

In 1949 fourteen aircraft were modified to a "Long Range Navigation" standard, this added improved nav and autopilot equipment plus a recorder to plot and record the aircrafts exact position every minute. Crews were then sent on long-range missions of up to 13 hours, simulating a deep penetration bombing raid into Europe, very precise navigation was required and results assessed by data in the recorder post flight.

1949 also saw the RAAF realise the need for a dedicated Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft, various proposals were put forward but all seemed unworkable, it was not until 1951 that the lengthening of the nose by almost two meters resolved most of the obstacles. The extra space provided room for the three sonobouy operators and their equipment without compromising the aircraft's capabilities. There were also a number of modifications made to the bomb bay to allow torpedo and life boat carriage and in the rear fuselage for the stowage and launching of various pyrotechnics. The Long Nose Lincoln would become the GR Mk.31. The first of these entered service with 10Sqn at Townsville in March 1953.

Changes were afoot again and in March 1955 A73-60 the first of ten MR versions was delivered to 10Sqn. These aircraft had changes to their internal equipment more in keeping with their maritime role, including a low-level bomb sight and updated radar capable of detecting a snorkelling submarine. By 1957 the mid upper turret was gone and two years later the .5 Brownings were removed from the nose turret.

The only other unit to operate Lincolns at the squadron level was 11Sqn. Based at Pearce in WA they flew Mk30s in the GR role, 1950/51 before re-equipping with Neptunes. Several other units operated aircraft at various time for special purposes, more detail of this will be given in the individual aircraft histories.

By the early 1960s they were all gone, either burnt on fire dumps or melted down in the scrappers furnaces, a sad end for such a versatile aircraft.

(Written by Rod Farquhar)

"The ADF-Serials team give permission to use the content of this page, excluding images, providing that it contains an acknowledgement to the adf-serials team and any other listed sources."

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Updated 16th September 2007