Unbeatable museum quality best describes our handcrafted Avro Lancaster RAF model airplane. After passing through the hands of master craftsmen, the parts are sanded and primed many times. Talented artists then paint on the intricate details with great accuracy. A final coat of clear lacquer protects the Avro Lancaster RAF model and gives it a glossy finish. The Avro Lancaster RAF model airplane comes with a handsome mahogany-based chrome pedestal, and to ensure that it is ready for delivery, it undergoes various stages of quality control before being placed in its box. The Avro Lancaster RAF model airplane is perfect as an addition to a growing collection or as an exquisite gift to a loved one. Avro Lancaster RAF History: The Avro Lancaster was a four-engine bomber aircraft built for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It was equipped with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, giving the aircraft a top speed of 287 mph and a range of 1,660 miles. Together with the Handley Page Halifax, it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving with RAF Bomber Command. Affectionately called “Lanc” or “Lankie”, it became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties. Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it also excelled in daylight precision bombing. It gained worldwide renown as the “Dam Buster” during Operation Chastise in 1943. Entering service in early 1942, the Lancaster’s design grew out of its failed predecessor, the Avro Manchester. While the Manchester was a capable aircraft, it was troubled by the unreliability of its Rolls-Royce Vulture engines and was withdrawn from service in 1942. Avro's chief designer, Roy Chadwick, was already working on an improved Manchester design using four of the more reliable but less powerful Merlin engines on a larger wing. The new aircraft became the Lancaster and proved to be a great improvement. When the United Kingdom's Bomber Command was given the difficult missions of destroying German dams in the Ruhr Valley and sinking the pocket battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord, their aircraft of choice was the Lancaster. The mission in the Ruhr Valley, codenamed Operation Chastise, was probably the most famous use of the Lancaster. Its story was later made into a film, The Dam Busters. The aircraft was also used by the RAF in Operation Manna in 1945, where the bombers dropped food into the Holland region of the occupied Netherlands to feed people who were in danger of starvation during the Dutch famine. This model has measurements of: Span 19.7 Len 13.4 and Scale: 1: 62