John Halliwell wrote:

In article , Guy Alcala
writes
In short, design and equip them
to do the same job and they'll do it with payloads within a couple of hundred
pounds (either way) of each other. The whole Lanc vs. B-17 argument is just
ludicrous.

The crucial point though, is that you're assuming the Lanc would have to
follow US practises and fly in the big box formations.

No, I'm saying that _if_ you followed US practises etc., the Lanc's performance
would be within a few % either way of the B-17's. Nowhere did I say that you had
to do so, but that is the variable that is always left out of the Lanc vs. B-17
threads, so that they wind up comparing apples and oranges.

Whilst this may
have suited the B-17 with machine guns sprouting everywhere (although I
don't think it was appropriate before P-51D escorts were available), it
may not have suited the Lanc. You simply can't enforce US practises on
UK types in an attempt to 'equate' them with one another.

See above.

One Halifax squadron removed the nose and mid-upper turrets, armour,
flame dampers and various other bits, the lighter weight and less
restricted engines flew higher, faster and their losses were reduced
significantly.

And so did B-17 and B-24 groups operating by day at various times and places, and
that's my point - it's ludicrous to compare two aircraft designed and equipped for
totally different missions and claim that one is "superior" to the other, by
looking _only_ at the mission for which one of them is optimised. In the B-17 vs.
Lanc argument, this method is routinely used to 'prove' that the Lanc had a better
payload/radius than the B-17, by comparing the Lanc's performance operating singly
at night, with the B-17's performance operating in formation by day at higher
altitudes. Basing a conclusion on such an 'analysis' is a prime example of GIGO.

Guy