Avro

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This article is about the British aircraft manufacturer. For other uses, see Avro (disambiguation).
A.V. Roe and Company (Avro)
Industry Aviation
Fate

Subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley 1935

Merged into Hawker Siddeley Aircraft 1963
Successor(s) Hawker Siddeley Aviation
Founded 1910 in Manchester
Defunct 1963
Headquarters Alexandra Park, Woodford, United Kingdom
Key people A.V. Roe, Roy Chadwick, Roy Dobson, Harry Broadhurst
Subsidiaries Saunders-Roe (1929)

Avro was a British aircraft manufacturer, with numerous landmark designs such as the Avro 504 trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the delta wing Avro Vulcan, a stalwart of the Cold War.

Avro was founded by Alliott Verdon Roe on Great Ancoats Street in Manchester. The company remained based primarily in Lancashire throughout its 53 years of existence with key developmental and manufacturing sites in Alexandra Park, Trafford Park and Chadderton.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

The A.V. Roe Type I Triplane, Roe's first successful aircraft

One of the world's first aircraft builders, A.V. Roe and Company was established at Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, by Alliott Verdon Roe and his brother Humphrey Verdon Roe on 1 January 1910.[1] Humphrey's contribution was chiefly financial and organizational; funding it from the earnings of the family brace business and Managing director until he joined the RFC in 1917.[2] Alliot had already made a name for himself as a pilot at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey and Farnborough in Hampshire. One early product was the A.V. Roe Bulls Eye, a duplex triplane with a wingspan of 20 feet.[3] 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

After the boom in orders during the First World War, the lack of new work with peace caused severe financial problems and in August 1920 68.5% of the company's shares were acquired by nearby Crossley Motors who had an urgent need for more factory space for vehicle body building.[4] In 1924, the Company left Alexandra Park Aerodrome in south Manchester where test flying had taken place during the period since 1918 and the site was taken over by a mixture of recreation and housing development. A rural site to the south of the growing city was found at New Hall Farm, Woodford in Cheshire, which continues to serve aviation builders BAE Systems to this day. In 1928 Crossley Motors sold AVRO to Armstrong Siddeley Holdings Ltd.[4] In 1928, A.V.Roe resigned from the company he had founded and formed the Saunders-Roe company that after World War II developed several radical designs for combat jets, and, eventually, a range of powerful hovercraft. In 1935, Avro became a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley.

[edit] The Second World War

The Avro Lancaster
Avro Vulcan
Blue Steel missile

Maintaining their skills in designing trainer aircraft, the company built a more robust biplane called the Avro Tutor in the 1930s that the Royal Air Force (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, and 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. Of the total, nearly half were built at Avro's Woodford and Chadderton (Manchester) sites, with some 700 Lancasters built at the Avro "shadow" factory next to Leeds Bradford Airport (formerly Yeadon Aerodrome), north-west Leeds. This factory employed 17,500 workers at a time when the population of Yeadon was just 10,000. The old taxiway from the factory to the runway is still evident.

[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, were 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. Recently Vulcan XH558 flew again after several years of refurbishment, and 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 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.

[edit] Avro Canada

Main article: Avro Canada

In 1945, Hawker Siddeley Group purchased the former Victory Aircraft firm in Malton, Ontario, and renamed the operation A.V. Roe Canada Limited.[5] Commonly known as Avro Canada, it was actually a subsidiary of the Hawker Siddeley Group and used the Avro name for trading purposes.

[edit] Amalgamation

When the company was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation in July 1963, the Avro name ceased to be used. But the brand had a strong heritage appeal, and the marketing name "Avro RJ" (regional jet) was used by British Aerospace for production of the RJ-85 and RJ-100 models of the BAe 146 from 1994 to 2001. This aircraft type is sometimes also loosely called the "Avro 146".

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, along with a single Vulcan, XH558 are 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

[edit] Unbuilt projects

  • Avro 720 – planned rocket interceptor, to OR.301 as for the SR.53. Cancelled before flight.
  • Avro 730 – planned supersonic bomber, never completed
  • Avro 734 – planned long-range decoy air-launched by Vulcans.[6]

[edit] Rotorcraft

[edit] Avro Canada

[edit] Unbuilt projects

  • Avro Canada CF-103 (mock-up only)
  • Avro Canada Project Y-1 (mock-up only)
  • Avro Canada Project Y-2 (scale test models only)
  • Avro Canada PV-704 (built as engine test model only)

[edit] Missiles

[edit] Car production

Avro also built motor vehicles in the immediate post-World War 1 era. Avro produced the three-wheeler Harper Runabout, and also their own light car, which was powered by a 1,330 cc 4-cylinder engine. Wood and aluminium was used in an integral construction, similar to an aircraft. Approximately 100 were built.

In 1927 Alliott Verdon-Roe designed a two-wheeler car powered by a 350cc Villiers air-cooled engine. An outrigger wheel kept the car upright when stationary. The Mobile did not go into production.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Avro aircraft
Notes
  1. ^ "Alliott Verdon-Roe." verdon-roe.co.uk. Retrieved: 5 April 2010.
  2. ^ http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1949/1949%20-%201381.html Flight 1949
  3. ^ Winthrop, John. Technical World Magazine, Volume 13. Armour Institute of Technology, 1910, p. 223. Retrieved: 23 June 2009.
  4. ^ a b Eyre, M., Chris Heaps and Alan Townsin. Crossley. Hersham, Surrey, UK: OPC Railprint, 2002. ISBN 0-86093-574-4.
  5. ^ Campagna, p.19
  6. ^ Chris Gibson Vulcan's Hammer p. 33
Bibliography
  • Campagna, Palmiro. Requiem For a Giant: A.V. Roe Canada and the Avro Arrow. Toronto, Ontario and Oxford, UK: Dundurn Press, 2003. ISBN 1-55002-438-8
  • Harlin, E.A. and G.A. Jenks. Avro: An Aircraft Album. Shepperton, Middlesex, UK: Ian Allen, 1973. ISBN 0-7710-0342-4.
  • Holmes, Harry. Avro: The History of an Aircraft Company. Wiltshire, UK: Crowood Press, 2004. ISBN 1-86126-651-0.
  • Jackson, Aubrey J. Avro Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam, 1965. ISBN 0-85177-797-X.
  • Molson, Ken M. and Harold A. Taylor. Canadian Aircraft since 1909. Toronto: Putnam, 1982. ISBN 0-09-200211-0.
  • Wood, Derek. Project Cancelled: British Aircraft That Never Flew. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1975. ISBN 0-672-52166-0.
  • Baldwin, Nick, “A-Z of Cars of the 1920’s”, Bay View Books, Bideford, Devon, 1998 ISBN 1-901432-092
Avro aircraft
 
Manufacturer designations
 
By role
Bombers
Transports
Maritime patrol
Passenger transports
Trainers
Fighters
Sports planes
Experimental
Aero engines
  • A.V. Roe 20 hp 2-cyl.
Timeline of British aerospace companies since 1955
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
Short Brothers and Harland Ltd. Short Brothers Ltd. Short Brothers plc[7]
Handley Page
F. G. Miles Beagle Aircraft[1]
Auster
Scottish Aviation[2] British Aerospace (BAe) BAE Systems
Blackburn Hawker Siddeley Aviation
Hawker Siddeley Dynamics
Avro
de Havilland
Folland
Hawker Siddeley[3]
Vickers-Armstrongs British Aircraft Corporation (BAC)[5]
English Electric[4]
Bristol
Hunting
The General Electric Company (GEC) The Marconi Company GEC-Marconi/Marconi Electronic Systems
The English Electric Company[6] Marconi plc
  1. Government owned from 1966 to liquidation
  2. Purchased rights for various Beagle and Handley-Page designs from the liquidator.
  3. Comprising Hawker Aircraft, Gloster Aircraft Company and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft.
  4. English Electric Aircraft, a subsidiary of the English Electric Company.
  5. BAC comprised the aviation interests of the companies that formed it, and wholly-owned Hunting Aircraft.
  6. GEC purchased EE and with it The Marconi Company and EE's shareholding in BAC, through its subsidiary EE Aircraft.
  7. Part of Bombardier Inc.
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