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The Shackleton was the last of a line of aircraft
beginning with the Manchester in 1939 and including the famous
Lancaster heavy bomber. The Shackleton was after the end of the Second
World War and featured the wing of the Lancaster replacement, the
Lincoln, and new more spacious fuselage. Power was provided by four
Rolls-Royce Griffon engines driving six bladed counter-rotating
propellers. Whereas the previous members of this line had been heavy
bombers the Shackleton was developed as a maritime patrol and ASW
aircraft. The first MR.1 aircraft entered squadron service in 1951.
These were followed by MR.2 and finally the MR.3 variant. This final
variant was significantly changed from the original. The most obvious
difference was the switch from a tailwheel undercarriage to a nosewheel
configuration. Others changes were increased fuel tankage, deletion of
the dorsal gun turret and the fitting of an improved cockpit canopy.
The MR.3 entered service in 1957. Further upgrades included the fitting
of Autocyclus exhaust trail detector for "sniffing" submarines running
on their diesel engines and the fitting of a pair of Viper turbojets to
improve takeoff performance. The last MR Shackletons were withdrawn
from RAF service in 1971. South Africa was the only export customer and
continued to operate its MR.3s well into the 1980s.
These were not the last Shackletons however. In 1971 the first
Shackleton AEW.2 flew. This was intended as a stopgap platform pending
the arrival of the Nimrod based AEW.3. The failure of the Nimrod AEW
program saw the Shackletons soldier on until 1991. The AEW.2 featured
an APS-20 radar in a large radome beneath the fuselage.
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