The ‘Shining Sword’ of Bomber Command. They flew nearly 300 thousand sorties and dropped over 1 million tonnes of explosives. But of the 7,377 Avro Lancasters built, more than half were lost. To find out more about this legendary aircraft, Dan Snow was joined by veteran of the first Gulf War, John Nichol. John has since become one of our most successful aviation historians, and has written a book exploring the Avro Lancaster.