Avro Lancaster – Engine Start Up Sequence

How do you start the mighty Avro Lancaster Bomber? Take our tour of the Avro Lancaster, as we go through the Pilot and Flight Engineer’s wartime engine starting sequence following the 1944 Air Ministry Pilot’s Notes for the Lancaster Bomber.

UK Aircraft Explored - promoting UK Aviation Heritage.

Textual extracts from Air Ministry Air Publications are Crown Copyright and transcribed with the kind permission of the National Archives, London. All colour diagrams are based on original Air Ministry Air Publications mono illustrations and transcribed into colour by Bryan Atkinson with the permission of the National Archives, London.

Thanks must also be given to the following superb organisations for their kind support when Bryan Atkinson originally developed The Lancaster Explored PC CD-ROM back in 2004, all are listed below and are included once again in this series of videos.

Lancaster B.Mk.I, PA474. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Lancaster B.Mk.I, R5868. Royal Air Force Museum, London.
Lancaster B. Mk.III, DV372. Imperial War Museum.
Lancaster B.Mk.X, KB889. Imperial War Museum, Duxford.
Lancaster B.Mk.VII, NX611. Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.
The Norman Groom & Jeremy Hall Lancaster Nose Sections.

The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust.
The National Archives, London.

The material contained in this video is intended for historical, reference and entertainment value only, and is not to be construed as usable for aircraft or component restoration, maintenance, or use.

[Weimar]

Siempre me han gustado los "sospechosos habituales" : B-17, B-24, FW-190, P-38... pero hasta hace relativamente poco tiempo, no me había interesado por los grandes aviones ingleses. Me gusta mucho empezar a conocer estos excelentes modelos con buenas imágenes y locución inglesa.

[spanishpeaches]

Deary me, my dad was a Lanc pilot with 49 Sq when he was just 21. I cannot begin to get to grips with that. At 21, in the early Eighties, I was a complete idiot with little vision beyond my next wage packet. I am always staggered by that generation and what they did and went through. I knew my dad loved me, but always had the feeling he thought of me as an aimless fool too..He was correct.

[allanmcelroy]

Very interesting, and lengthy, procedure. I was fortunate enough having the opportunity to walk through one of these on a tour through, during an airshow in Gatineau Quebec Canada, but never until this video did I know anything at all about what is involved with getting the glorious "beast" of a plane (bigger then the American B-17) in operation.

[jonnybottle]

Thank you also. My half-cousin John Bratton was flight engineer on a Lancaster of 101 Squadron, based at Ludford Magna and he survived a full tour. He wrote a lot of this out for me. The document is one of my prized possessions. It mentions priming with "Ki-gas" but it's not mentioned here. I remember Ki-gas as a cold-weather starting aid for motrobike and cars in the 60s.

[bill]

Fascinating and excellent. Thank you. My father was in Lancs and we were allowed to scramble over the BBMF one many years ago. I used to hate clumsily attempting to do all my checks off by heart (checklist not allowed) when I had flying lessons with the RAF and was always amazed how slickly quickly and professionally the instructors/pilots did them and the comms when they were in charge. My father experienced in training experienced an engine failure on take off on the runway. It sheared the undercarriage off.

[TheDrAkira]

The Avro Lancaster was a truly lovely warbird that carried out most of the bombing in the European theater. Forget those shiny B-17 or B25 it was this fine Gentleman. The Avro Lancaster the truly MVP of the WW2. I had the pleasure of seeing one in a museum and is magnificent and so beautiful. What a lovely death machine!

[sanderslotboom]

This was amazing. So thorough and complete. I didn't know they used external power supply for the engine start but it makes so much sense given that modern aircraft also use them. I hope to one day be able to see a Lancaster in real life! Thanks for the video!

[pcmetroify]

This video is excellent…something I never new.

[robinleigh]

Thank you for this careful presentation. It is a long time since I last saw my uncle, a Flight Engineer, who lost his life in the final months of the war. As a young boy, I asked what the Flight Engineer did but none of my family really knew. You have put in the missing pieces of my private puzzle.

[shaunmcclory]

Crikey i was confused before one even got started!

[Play_fare]

Starting one of these aircraft was not a jump in the seat, flick a switch and off you go proposition. So many steps, and obviously several people involved to get it going to the point of taxi. I can only imagine how many people must have been involved to get an entire squadron of these aircraft into the air for a mission. Impressive.

[petehall]

A very interesting video - thank you for showing us! I can just imagine my father starting his engines like this during his second tour of operations with 61 Sqn.

[RalphMayman]

Hearing those engines start up I felt my heart speed up. I can only imagine how those youngsters felt that flew these fantastic birds

[damienmilk]

Thanks for the video. My now deceased uncle was a Lancaster pilot with 460 squadron (Binbrook). There was very little said about it when I was a kid. Sad, really; I would have loved to have learned more from him.

[jds]

Fascinating. Many folks, myself included, do not have the slightest idea the meticulous process involved in starting a 4-engine bomber's engines.

Or, I might add, as you alluded to, just what additional system each engine powers in addition to providing the power to fly the aircraft.

Excellent.

[michaelfrancis]

My uncle was a navigator in a Lancaster that got shot down over Holland, after a bombing run on Germany, with all lives lost. It's hard to imagine what those guys and girls went through, hero's one and all.

[patfontaine]

Awesome, thanks! You’ve started with the two most beautiful British aircraft.

[sullybiker]

Once you get #3 running it's not that bad. I still think it's amazing this was all single pilot operation; he only had the engineer on the prat perch next to him helping him along, and that man had other jobs too.

[markchancellor-maddison]

Excellent! Fascinating! please let us see more. Regards Mark Chancellor-Maddison, Durban, South Africa

[tonybarnes]

That was brilliant! Thanks a million!! The Lanc appears to have a more complex startup procedure than the B17 from what I've seen!!