Avro
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- This article is about the aircraft manufacturer. AVRO is also the name of a Dutch public-service broadcasting organization.
Avro was a British aircraft manufacturer, with numerous landmark designs such as the Avro 504 trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster which was one of preeminent bombers in the Second World War and the delta wing Avro Vulcan, a stalwart of the Cold War.
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[edit] Early history
One of the world's first aircraft builders, A.V. Roe and Company was established at Brownsfield Mills, Manchester, England by Alliott Verdon Roe and his brother H.V. Roe on 1 January 1910. Alliot had already made a name for himself as a pilot at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey and Farnborough in Hampshire, England. The company built the world's first totally enclosed monoplane in 1912, but it was the well-proportioned, wooden biplane known as the Avro 504 that kept the firm busy throughout the First World War and beyond. Production totalled 8,340 at several factories: Hamble, Failsworth, Miles Platting and Newton Heath and continued for almost 20 years. This was a substantial achievement considering the novelty of powered aircraft in this period.
[edit] The Inter-War years
In the 1920s, the Company left Alexandra Park aerodrome in south Manchester where test flying had taken place during its early years. A rural site to the south of the growing city was found at New Hall Farm, Woodford, Cheshire which continues to serve aviation builders BAE Systems to this day. In 1928, A.V.Roe formed the Saunders-Roe company that developed several radical designs for combat jets, and, eventually, a range of powerful hovercraft.
[edit] The Second World War
Maintaining their skills in designing trainer aircraft, the company built a more robust biplane called the Avro Tutor in the 1930s that the RAF also bought in quantity. A twin piston-engined airliner called the Anson followed but as tensions rose again in Europe the firm's emphasis returned to combat aircraft. The Avro Manchester, Lancaster, Lincoln were particularly famous Avro designs. Over 7,000 Lancasters were built and their bombing capabilities led to their use in the famous Dam Busters raid.
[edit] Postwar developments
The civilian Lancastrian and maritime reconnaissance Shackleton were derived from the successful Lancaster design. The Tudor was a pressurised but problematic post-war Avro airliner that faced strong competition from designs by Bristol, Canadair, Douglas, Handley Page and Lockheed. With the same wings and engines as the Lincoln, it achieved only a short (34 completed) production run following a first flight in June 1945 and the cancellation of an order from BOAC. The older Avro York was somewhat more successful in both the RAF and in commercial service, being distinguished by a fuselage square in cross-section. Both Tudors and Yorks played an important humanitarian part in the Berlin Airlift.
The postwar Vulcan bombers, originally designed as a nuclear strike aircraft, was used to maintain the British nuclear deterrent armed with the Avro Blue Steel stand-off nuclear bomb. The Vulcan saw service as a conventional bomber during the British campaign to recapture the Falkland Islands in 1982. Although none has flown since 1992, several are prized as museum exhibits.
A twin turboprop airliner, the Avro 748, was developed during the 1950s and sold widely across the globe, powered by two Rolls Royce Dart engines. The Royal Flight of the United Kingdom bought a few and a variant with a rear-loading ramp and a "kneeling" main undercarriage was sold to the RAF and several members of the Commonwealth as the Andover, named after a town in Hampshire.
[edit] A.V. Roe Canada
In the 1950s, Hawker Siddeley Group purchased the former Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ontario, Canada and renamed the operation, A.V. Roe Canada (commonly known as Avro Canada), although it was operated as a subsidiary of the HS Group. Avro Canada designed three aircraft: the C102 Avro Jetliner, (North America's first passenger jet), the Avro CF-100 Canuck jet fighter, (the only Canadian designed fighter to go into production) and the CF-105 Avro Arrow (an advanced supersonic fighter interceptor). Like the Jetliner, the Arrow was destined never to achieve full production with the Canadian government's controversial decision to scrap the project and its accompanying Orenda Iroquois jet engine significantly contributing to the demise of Avro Canada as a company. Its last abortive aviation project was the VZ-9-AV Avrocar experimental "saucer" research craft built for the U.S. Army and USAF (cancelled in 1961). The separate Avro Orenda engine division which designed and produced the successful Orenda turbojet series continues in operation as part of the Magellan Aerospace Corporation.
[edit] Amalgamation
When the company was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation in July 1963, the Avro name seemed to have disappeared forever, but the brand had such a strong heritage appeal that the marketing name, "Avro RJ," (regional jet) was applied to the British Aerospace 146 from 1994 to 2001. This plane is sometimes also called "Avro 146," or "Jumbolino" due to its four jet engines.
The BAe ATP (Advanced Turbo Prop) design evolved from the Avro 748 and examples continue in use on shorter, mainly domestic, scheduled air services. A few Avro 504s, Tutors, Ansons and Lancasters are lovingly maintained in flying condition as reminders of the heritage of this influential English company. At 39 years, the noisy but impressive Shackleton held the distinction of being the aircraft with the longest period of active RAF service, until overtaken by the English Electric Canberra in 1998.
[edit] Avro aeroplanes
- Avro Triplane
- Avro 146: see BAe 146
- Avro 504
- Avro 534 Baby
- Avro 555 Bison
- Avro 594 / 616 Avian
- Avro 618 Ten
- Avro 619 Five
- Avro 621 Tutor
- Avro 626 Prefect
- Avro 631 / 643 Cadet
- Avro 636 (1935)
- Avro 638 Club Cadet (1933)
- Avro 641 Commodore (1935)
- Avro 652A Anson (1935)
- Avro 671 Rota (1935)
- Avro 679 Manchester (1939)
- Avro 683 Lancaster (1941)
- Avro 685 York (1942)
- Avro 688 / 689 Tudor (1945)
- Avro 691 Lancastrian (1943)
- Avro 694 Lincoln (1944)
- Avro Athena (1948)
- Avro 696 Shackleton (1949)
- Avro 698 Vulcan (1952)
- Avro 707 (1949)
- Avro Canada C102 Jetliner (1949), also Avro Canada
- Avro CF-100 (Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck) (1950), also Avro Canada
- Avro CF-105 Arrow (Avro Canada CF-105) (1957), also Avro Canada
- Avro VZ-9-AV Avrocar Avrocar (aircraft) (1959) also Avro Canada
- Avro Ashton (1950)
- Avro 748 (1960) - became the Hawker Siddeley Andover, HS 748 and BAe 748
- Avro 730 - planned supersonic bomber, never completed
[edit] References
- Harlin, E.A, and Jenks, G.A. Avro; An Aircraft Album. Shepperton, Middlesex: Ian Allen, 1973. ISBN 0-7710-0342-4.
- Jackson, A.J. Avro Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam, 1965. ISBN 0-85177-797-X.
- Molson, K. M. and Taylor, H.A. Canadian Aircraft since 1909. Toronto: Putnam, 1982. ISBN 092002110
- Wood, Derek. "Project Cancelled: British Aircraft That Never Flew."' New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1975. ISBN 0-672-52166-0.
