I had the privilige to sit in and watch Lancaster NX611 trot into position this week, and I've got to say it's a hellva beast.
The Lancaster dates back to the early 1940s - I'm sure you can imagine why. And despite the ample window space, there is a lack of legroom in there. Not the sort of thing you'd want to sit in for a few hours, that's for certain and I'll bet the in-flight meal is pretty poor. Nonetheless, the fate of the world on your shoulders is enough to put even the most reticent crew in the air. And thousands of these took to the air.
This particular Lanc actually spent most of her time serving as maritime search and rescue, but one can't help but notice the swastika on the scorecard. Just standing in awe at her side, it's apparent that every plate, every rivet, every curve of her flank is there for a reason. And those reasons are few. The minimalist, extremely practical design shows all too clearly how quickly our civilisation went from the wright brothers first fateful flight on a beach in North Carolina to the four-engine thunder of the Lancaster bomber.
Those four big old engines - cowled so that ground units can't see the tremendous fire she spits out, make so much thunder that Thor would quake in his boots. Just watching her head off away toward the runway inspires enough fear, and it's difficult to imagine the roar as a whole squadron is launched hull after hull on their fateful flight.
And so, the Lancaster has become the textbook example of test driven development. Each plate, rivet, turret, engine cowling, the tailgunner down to the huge depressing void of the empty payload bay - all of these are birthed of necessity and each have their exact job to complete.
At some point, this was a plane, and specifications changed, so a payload bay was added. The design got bigger, longer, fatter. At some point in twentieth century aviation, a tailgunner became required so they just built one in and recompiled. Resources were scarce and there is little to the Lanc that isn't required to pass it's unit tests.
Does it fly?
Can we put a thousand pounds of bombs on it?
...
Ok, there are a few other tests - as the Lancaster Bomber Haynes Manual demonstrates and a lot of engineering has to go into keeping just one of these in the air. But each of those resolves to a literal bullet point of criteria that it has to achieve and each of those ends up expressed in a simple Yes-or-No decision about it's fit for purpose.
We have a Lancaster bomber in all of us - a project, a dream, an exact "this and that" which has to be just right. Like the Lancaster Engineers of Longbridge, sometimes things just get in the way but you have to strike those chocks and let your ambitions fly.
Be precise, be professional. Face your runways, and may your four engines roar.
Great piece of writing
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