Avro Lancaster B.X

The B.X was a Canadian-built B.III, produced by Victory Aircraft at Malton, Ontario, with Canadian and American instruments and electrics. A total of 430 were delivered between 1943 and 1945. In later batches the Nash & Thompson FN-50 mid-upper turret gave way to the heavier Martin 250CE, mounted further forward to keep the centre of gravity in place.

Canada was the type's longest-serving operator. From 1946 the RCAF adapted its Mk Xs to a wide range of duties, each with its own designation: 10AR for Arctic reconnaissance — three aircraft with a nose lengthened by a hundred centimetres carrying cameras and ELINT equipment, in service until 1964 — 10BR for bomber reconnaissance (thirteen conversions), 10DC as controllers for Ryan Firebee drones (two, modified in 1957 and operational until 1961), 10MR and later 10MP for maritime anti-submarine patrol (between seventy and seventy-five conversions, with radar, sonobuoy operators' stations, a four-hundred-gallon tank in the bomb bay and even a cooking stove), 10N for navigation training (five), 10O as a testbed for the Orenda turbojet of the Avro CF-100, 10P for photographic mapping (eleven converted between 1948 and 1950, retired in 1964), 10S&R as an interim search-and-rescue type and 10S as the baseline standard with Merlin 224 engines, Martin turret and H2S radar. The last RCAF Lancaster flight was made by KB976 on 4 July 1964 at the Calgary air show.