COBI Avro Lancaster B. III Set 5759

COBI's Avro Lancaster B. III is a 1:48 model built from 1,595 blocks, 45.5 cm long with a 64.5 cm wingspan, in the markings of the Polish 300 Squadron "Ziemia Mazowiecka". The propellers turn, the landing gear retracts, the bomb bay opens with brick bombs inside, the interior is modelled, and a Polish pilot figure and a nameplate are included.

Ten metres of empty bomb bay

The Lancaster's advantage over every other Allied heavy bomber was a single design decision: an unobstructed bomb bay just over ten metres long, with no structural member crossing it.

A B-17's bay was divided by the wing spar and by a catwalk, which limited it to bombs of around 900 kg. The Lancaster could swallow anything that would physically fit — and Barnes Wallis kept designing things that were larger. The 5,400 kg Tallboy went into a Lancaster. So did the 10,000 kg Grand Slam, the heaviest bomb dropped by anyone during the war, which needed the bomb doors removed and the aircraft lightened but otherwise fitted.

No other aircraft in the world could carry it. That is why the Lancaster sank the Tirpitz, and why 7,377 of them were built.

300 Squadron

The markings are those of a Polish bomber squadron formed in Britain in 1940 from airmen who had escaped occupied Poland via Romania and France. It flew Lancasters from 1944 until the end of the war. Polish squadrons in the RAF operated under British command but kept Polish crews, Polish language in the air, and their own squadron names — Ziemia Mazowiecka means the Mazovian Land.

In the COBI range

Set 5758 is the Executive Edition Dambuster in 617 Squadron markings, with the bouncing bomb and three figures.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,595 · Figures: 1 · Scale: 1:48 · Opening bomb bay with brick bombs
Model dimensions: 45.5 × 64.5 cm (17.9 × 25.4 in)