Replies

Ha! May as well ask them to bring back their Lancaster bombers as well.

Probably even that would be an improvement. I think their Lincoln bomber (developed from the Lancaster) was nuclear capable although I've heard stories where we tried to bum a Lancaster or three to carry the A-Bombs to Japan. Heck, we still use the B-52 of that same vintage. BTW, it seems like the Russians want a war not only with us but the UK as well.

although I've heard stories where we tried to bum a Lancaster or three to carry the A-Bombs to Japan.

Yes, that's true. The early gun-style A-bomb design (called "Thin Man") was too long to fit into a B-29 bomb bay. The B-29 had two bomb bays, and cutting the airframe apart to merge them was a big engineering problem given that the mid-fuselage wing spar sat in the area between them.

The Lanc had a very long (but shallow) bomb bay, where length wouldn't be an issue. There were other engineering challenges, but the aircraft was seriously looked at as a launch platform.

However the eventual gun-style design ("Little Boy") was short enough for the B-29. At that point the inquiries into using Lancasters were dropped.