The Avro Lancaster military bomber seems to be in the final stages before release. In a public update, the developers at Aeroplane Heaven have been working feverishly on the legendary aircraft. You can see by the screenshots that it already looks ready to fly. With the modeling and textures done, they are working on testing crew positions and finding the same surprises that the Avro Lancaster crew did in real life.
The Avro Lancaster was a British Second World War heavy bomber during the latter half of the war, used by the Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal Australian Air Force. There was a crew of seven men: Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner, Pilot, Flight Engineer, Navigator, Wireless Operator, Mid-Upper Gunner, and Rear Gunner. This airplane was necessary for the night bombing runs of its range and cavernous bomb bay cavity. Andrew Smith, a Battle of Britain historian, tells us, “The Lanc could carry the heaviest bomb load of any bomber during the war. The largest single bomb was the 10-ton “Grand Slam!“
Aeroplane Heaven is currently testing each crew position, and they are surprised to learn how tight it is to place a body with full gear in each position. This testing must be done before release so sim flyers will not be surprised when we add crew to the plane. Aeroplane Heaven is flying this deadly bird in the sim skies of MSFS with flight dynamics tests and tweaks. Of course, we won’t be able to drop bombs in our family-friendly MSFS, but we can certainly learn to fly this beast and enjoy the memories of the era. Plenty of sim flyers are waiting for this release, judging by the comments and reactions in the forums and Twitch channels.
A close examination of Aeroplane Heaven’s screenshots reveals a true-to-life worn cockpit, the exact lines of the beast from the outside, and the precise rendition of the four Merlin engines protruding from this mid-wing design and of course, all the gun turrets in the right places. The real thrill here is the ability for a sim pilot to strap on this beast and attempt to handle it in all phases of flight, just for the thrill of reliving the days of old in a marvelous engineering feat during the forties. This is one of those creations for Microsoft Flight Simulator that is instantly recognizable, from the look and the name, that so many flight sim enthusiasts can’t wait to get their hands on. Other Avro products are being released soon for MSFS, such as the Avro Vulcan, to fly alongside the Lancaster.
Over 7,000 Lancasters were built and flown in various countries during the war. To date, only two are still flying in real life, with one of them in Canada. The Lancaster located at the Airplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario Canada is still taking passengers on rides, and is “The only place in the world you can fly in a Lancaster”. It’s one of those bucket-list items for every pilot and airplane history buff. Here is the Royal Air Force interactive website where you can learn more about this airplane.
The developer, Aeroplane Heaven, is known for high-quality sim airplanes for home flight simulators like P3D and FSX over the years. They no longer make products for those platforms and are focused exclusively on Microsoft Flight Simulator. They have a collection of well-made airplanes, such as the DHC-1 Chipmunk, the Electra 10A, the Supermarine Spitfire, and the Mustang P-51. Warplane sim flyers already know of the high-quality standards that Aeroplane Heaven sets for their products. We expect the same here with the Avro Lancaster, a legendary hero of WWII.
