Avro Shackleton Mk.3 - Bilder og video

Bildegalleri av en Avro Shackleton Mk.3, The Avro Shackleton was a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). It was developed by Avro from the Avro Lincoln bomber, itself being a development of the famous wartime Avro Lancaster bomber. It was replaced by Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft in the 1970s. The aircraft was also adapted for airborne early warning (AEW) roles within the RAF, replaced by the Boeing E-3 Sentry in 1990. The type is named after the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

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The Avro Shackleton was a long-range maritime patrol aircraft that served in the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force from 1951 to 1991. It was derived from the Avro Lincoln bomber, which was itself a development of the famous wartime Avro Lancaster bomber. The Shackleton was designed to counter the threat of Soviet submarines in the post-war era, and was equipped with various sensors and weapons for anti-submarine warfare. The Shackleton also performed other roles such as search and rescue, mail delivery, and airborne early warning. The Shackleton was named after the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who led several expeditions to Antarctica.
The Shackleton had a crew of 13 and was powered by four Rolls Royce Griffon 57A piston engines, each producing 2,455 horsepower. The aircraft had a wingspan of 36.52 meters, a length of 28.27 meters, and a height of 7.11 meters. The maximum take-off weight was 43,091 kilograms, and the maximum speed was 480 kilometers per hour. The Shackleton had a range of 2,946 kilometers and an endurance of 16 hours. The aircraft was armed with two 20 mm cannons in a nose turret, and could carry up to 4,536 kilograms of bombs, depth charges, mines, or nuclear weapons in an internal bomb bay.
The Shackleton underwent several modifications and upgrades throughout its service life, resulting in different variants such as the MR.1, MR.2, MR.3, T.4, and AEW.2. The most notable change was the addition of a large radome under the fuselage for radar equipment. The Shackleton was eventually replaced by the jet-powered Hawker Siddeley Nimrod in the maritime patrol role, and by the Boeing E-3 Sentry in the airborne early warning role. The last operational Shackletons were retired in 1991, after more than 40 years of service.