This article is about the British aircraft manufacturer that existed from 1910 to 1963. For the British aircraft manufacturer in the 1990s, seeAvro International Aerospace. For other uses, seeAvro (disambiguation).
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 on 1 January 1910 at Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street,Manchester, byAlliott Verdon Roe and his brotherHumphrey Verdon Roe.[1] Humphrey's contribution was chiefly financial and organizational; funding it from the earnings of the familywebbing business and acting as managing director until he joined theRFC in 1917.[2] Alliot had already constructed a successful aircraft, theRoe I Triplane, namedThe Bullseye after a brand ofbraces manufactured by Humphrey.[3] The railway arch where A.V. Roe in 1909 built and achieved the first all-British powered flight still stands in theLee Valley Park on the Walthamstow Marshes. In 1911,Roy Chadwick began work as Alliott's personal assistant and the firm's draughtsman and, in 1918, he was appointed Chief Designer.
The first Avro aircraft to be produced in any quantity was the Avro E orAvro 500, first flown in March 1912, of which 18 were manufactured, most for the newly formedRoyal Flying Corps. The company also built the world's first aircraft with enclosed crew accommodation in 1912, the monoplaneType F and the biplaneAvro Type G in 1912, neither progressing beyond the prototype stage. The Type 500 was developed into theAvro 504, first flown in September 1913. A small number were bought by the War Office before the outbreak ofWorld War I, and the type saw some front-line service in the early months of the war, but it is best known as a training aircraft, serving in that role until 1933. Production lasted 20 years and totalled 8,340 aircraft from several factories: Hamble, Failsworth, Miles Platting and Newton Heath.
After the boom in orders during the First World War, the lack of new work in peacetime caused severe financial problems and in August 1920, 68.5% of the company's shares were acquired by nearbyCrossley Motors which had an urgent need for more factory space for automotive vehicle body building.[4]
In 1924, the company leftAlexandra Park Aerodrome in south Manchester where test flying had taken place since 1918; the site was used for a mixture of recreation and housing development. A rural site to the south of the city was found at New Hall Farm,Woodford in Cheshire, which continued to be used by aviation companyBAE Systems until March 2011; the site has now been earmarked for a mixed use development.
In 1928 Crossley Motors sold AVRO toArmstrong Siddeley Holdings Ltd.[4] In 1928 A.V. Roe resigned from the company he had founded and formed theSaunders-Roe company, which after World War II developed several radical designs for combat jets, and, eventually, a range of powerfulhovercraft.
Maintaining their skills in designingtrainer aircraft, the company built a more robust biplane called theAvro Tutor in the 1930s which theRoyal Air Force (RAF) also bought in quantity. A twin piston-engined airliner called theAnson followed but as tensions rose again in Europe the firm's emphasis returned to combat aircraft. TheAvro Manchester,Lancaster, andLincoln were particularly famous Avro designs. Over 7,000 Lancasters were built and their bombing capabilities led to their use in the famousDam Busters raid. Of the total, nearly half were built at Avro's Woodford (Stockport) and Chadderton (Oldham) sites, with some 700 Lancasters built at the Avro "shadow" factory next toLeeds Bradford Airport (formerly Yeadon Aerodrome), northwestLeeds. This factory employed 17,500 workers at a time when the population of Yeadon was just 10,000. It was the largest building in Europe at the time, at 1.5 million square feet (140,000 square metres), and its roof was disguised by the addition of fields and hedges to hide it from enemy planes.[5] The old taxiway from the factory to the runway is still evident.
The Avro Lancaster carried the heaviest bomb loads of the war, including theGrand Slam bomb.
The civilianLancastrian and maritime reconnaissanceShackleton were derived from the successful Lancaster design. TheTudor was a pressurised but problematic post-war Avro airliner which faced strong competition from designs byBristol,Canadair,Douglas,Handley Page, andLockheed. 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 fromBOAC. The olderAvro 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 theBerlin Airlift.
The postwarVulcanbomber, originally designed as a nuclear-strike aircraft, was used to maintain the British nuclear deterrent, armed with theAvro Blue Steel stand-off nuclear bomb. TheVulcan saw service as a conventional bomber during the British campaign to recapture theFalkland Islands in 1982. Several Vulcans are prized as museum exhibits.
A twin turbopropairliner, theAvro 748, was developed during the 1950s and sold widely to airlines and governments across the globe, powered by twoRolls-Royce Dart engines. The RAF bought 6 for use by theQueen's Flight and a variant with a rear-loading ramp and a "kneeling" main undercarriage was sold to the RAF (31 aircraft) as theAndover.
The Avro name would subsequently be resurrected byBritish Aerospace when this aircraft manufacturer renamed itsBAe 146 family of regional jetliners as Avro regional jets (Avro RJ). Three differently sized versions of the four engine jetliner were produced: theAvro RJ70, theAvro RJ85 and the largest example, theAvro RJ100.
In 1945,Hawker Siddeley Group purchased the formerVictory Aircraft firm inMalton, Ontario, and renamed the operationA.V. Roe Canada Limited.[6] Commonly known asAvro Canada, it was actually a subsidiary of the Hawker Siddeley Group and used the Avro name for trading purposes.
When the company was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation in July 1963 following the1957 Defence White Paper, the Avro name ceased to be used. The brand still had a strong heritage appeal, and as mentioned above the marketing name "Avro RJ" (regional jet) was used byBritish Aerospace from 1994 to 2001 for production of the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100 models which were respectively based on theBAe 146-100,BAe 146-200 andBAe 146-300. This four engine jet aircraft type is sometimes also loosely called the "Avro 146".
TheBAe ATP (Advanced Turbo Prop) design evolved from theAvro 748 and examples continue in use on shorter, mainly domestic, scheduled air services. A few Avro 504s, Tutors, Ansons and Lancasters are maintained in flying condition. At 39 years, the Shackleton held the distinction of being the aircraft with the longest period of active RAF service, until overtaken by theEnglish Electric Canberra in 1998.
Avro also built motor vehicles in the immediate post-World War 1 era, including the three-wheelerHarper Runabout, as well as their own light car. Powered by a 1,330 cc 4-cylinder engine, wood and aluminium were 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 350 ccVilliers air-cooled engine. An outrigger wheel kept the car upright when stationary. TheMobile did not go into production.
