Shortly after WW2 the British were trialling some of their new jet engines and decided to use an Avro Lancastrian, a passenger plane developed from the Lancaster bomber, as a testbed by removing the two outer Merlin piston engines and replacing them with Rolls-Royce Nenes. The first plane VH742 was by most accounts pretty successful. The problem I have though is trying to track down any solid information on what sort of performance it had. Would any of the resident aviation enthusiasts happen to know where I can find anything online?
The Short Sperrin which the government developed as a back-up to the V bomber programme whilst a couple of developments down the line wasn't massively technologically advanced and was able to turn in a respectable performance. Now what would of happened if jet research had been advanced faster in our timeline and they looked at converting Lancasters to jet power as an interim step? In completely unscientific fashion simply for the sake of argument knocking roughly 20% off the performance figures of the Sperrin since that's how much less less thrust the Nene produced than the Avon plus say another 5% for for it being less streamlined and extra things that need changing still gives some interesting figures for an alternate-Lancaster. Cruising speed of 400 miles per hour with a top speed of 450 miles per hour, range of just over 3,000 miles and a flight ceiling of 36,000 feet. Whilst something like this is sure to spur the Luftwaffe to advancing their own developments to counter, of the our timeline planes they fielded during WW2 other than the Dornier Do 335 right at the very end and the jet fighters they developed would they of had anything that could of significantly challenged them?
The Short Sperrin which the government developed as a back-up to the V bomber programme whilst a couple of developments down the line wasn't massively technologically advanced and was able to turn in a respectable performance. Now what would of happened if jet research had been advanced faster in our timeline and they looked at converting Lancasters to jet power as an interim step? In completely unscientific fashion simply for the sake of argument knocking roughly 20% off the performance figures of the Sperrin since that's how much less less thrust the Nene produced than the Avon plus say another 5% for for it being less streamlined and extra things that need changing still gives some interesting figures for an alternate-Lancaster. Cruising speed of 400 miles per hour with a top speed of 450 miles per hour, range of just over 3,000 miles and a flight ceiling of 36,000 feet. Whilst something like this is sure to spur the Luftwaffe to advancing their own developments to counter, of the our timeline planes they fielded during WW2 other than the Dornier Do 335 right at the very end and the jet fighters they developed would they of had anything that could of significantly challenged them?