‘AVRO MANCHESTER’
One of A. V. Roe’s few failures. Designed by Roy Chadwick, it first saw service in late 1940. It soon proved to be underdeveloped, underpowered, and the twin Rolls Royce Vulture engines were extremely unreliable. It was unable to remain airborne for long if an engine failed, which happened on a regular basis regardless of battle damage. It was withdrawn from front line operations in 1942, Chadwick redeveloped the basic design with enlarged wings, and the addition of 4 Rolls Royce Merlin engines to create the Lancaster. Note the central tail fin, which was dispensed with after 20 examples were built, the twin vertical stabilisers being enlarged instead. Manchester’s were used to train new crews destined for Lancasters, the cockpit layout and crew positions of the two aircraft being identical.