Savaşın sonlarında Lanchester’lar Japonya’ya karşı “Tiger Force” adı altında bir saldırı gücü olarak hazırlanıyorlardı fakat savaşın sona ermesi bu görevin gerçekleşmesine mani olmuştur. Bombardıman görevlerine ilaveten bu uçaklar maritim kurtarma ve keşif, ve motor test platformları olarak da kullanılmıştır. Son uçak 1946 Şubat’ında teslim edilmiştir. Bundan sonra sivil görevler için de uçan Lanchester’lar savaş uçağı olarak diğer ülkelere de satılmıştır.

The Lancaster’s design grew out of a failed predecessor, the Avro Manchester. While its’ airframe offered a stable platform for heavy bombing assignments, the Manchester’s twin engine design was inadequate to the task.

By upgrading to four Merlins, the resulting aircraft met the specifications. 7,366 Avro Lancasters were built during the war, that was more than most of the British bombers. It entered service at the beginning of 1942. Armament included eight to ten Browning machine guns for fighter defense (depending on model variant) mounted in the nose, upper dorsal turret and the tail.

Experience with a variety of bomb loads eventually led to adoption of the ‘Grand Slam’ 22,000-pound bomb, the largest carried by any aircraft in the war. For the dam-busting strike in May 1943, the Lancaster dropped these  bombs’. Wartime Lancaster sorties totaled about 156,000 during which roughly 608,000 tons of ordnance were dropped on the enemy.

It also took part in sinking of the German pocket battleship Tirpitz and in addition to destroying the dams in the Ruhr Valley. Along with the Handley Page Halifax, the Lancaster gave the UK the offensive striking power needed to penetrate German air defenses during World War II.