Lancaster intestines
 

Have been looking too closely at Lancaster DV372 "Old Fred" (fragment) at Imperial War Museum today with chum. We saw a device sticking out of the starboard side which would ordinarily have been concealed by the wing. Curious, we traced it back inside the cabin and saw it appeared to be ducted off to the nose of the machine. Neither of us know what it is. Anyone know what it is?

An uneducated guess but maybe something to do with the high pressure hydraulic lines from the engine to the nose turret? A to B.

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/2927/hydraulics.jpg

Thanks Noyade for the fascinating response. I hadn't any idea that the turrets operated in that manner. I feel, however, that the system i was trying to describe is an air duct of some sort. Perhaps it was a crew/equipment heating system; the duct obviously passes into the wing root. There was a grub screw that operates from within the cabin which allows the flow of air to be regulated (I fiddled with it!) It strikes me as possible that the air is ducted to the nascelle of the inboard engine which supplies the heat.

Perhaps it blasted hot air into the equipment in the cockpit to prevent freezing problems.

Wild guesswork!

Put me out of my misery before I pay for the Haynes Manual.

Chf

That is indeed the cabin heating ductwork. There is a small radiator fitted into the inboard wing leading edge with a square air intake on the front of the leading edge panel. The ductwork comes through the wing leading edge into the cockpit and turns 90' and rund along the stbd cabin floor with a heating hose coming off at the wireless op position.

Back in '66, when I was a young pilot on Shack conversion, we had a great, elderly gentleman navigator, name of Spike, who had spent most of his career in Bomber Command, and as a reward, was posted to 205 Sqn RAF Changi for his last tour.
We all survived the Sea Survival Course at RAF Mountbatten in January, jumping into the English Channel in just overalls and a Mae West - thank you Cox'n for the Pusser's Rum. A few days later, we had our first look inside a T4 Shack.
"Blimey!" said Spike "It's just like the inside of a Lanc - look, there's the Connell Box, and the Collimated Bomb Sight!"
It seems that not much had changed in 25 years. Spike said that even the smell was the same.

Many thanks indeed. I shall sleep better today!

Chf