Avro Manchester

The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the more famed and more successful four-engined Avro Lancaster, which was one of the most capable strategic bombers of the Second World War.

Avro designed the Manchester in conformance with the requirements laid out by the British Air Ministry Specification P.13/36, which sought a capable medium bomber with which to equip the Royal Air Force (RAF) and to replace its twin-engine bombers, such as the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Handley Page Hampden and Vickers Wellington. Performing its maiden flight on 25 July 1939, the Manchester entered squadron service in November 1940, just over twelve months after the outbreak of the war.

Operated by the RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the Manchester came to be regarded as a failure, primarily as a result of its Rolls-Royce Vulture engines, which were underdeveloped and hence underpowered and unreliable, and production was terminated in 1941. The Manchester was redesigned as a four-engined heavy bomber, powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine instead, which became known as the Lancaster.

Development

The Manchester has its origins in a design produced by Avro to fulfil the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36. This was the same specification to which Handley Page had also produced their initial design for what would become the Halifax bomber. Issued in May 1936, Specification P.13/36 called for a twin-engine monoplane "medium bomber" for "worldwide use", which was to be capable of carrying out shallow (30°) dive bombing attacks and carry heavy bomb loads () or two torpedoes. Provisions to conduct catapult assisted takeoffs, which would permit the carriage of the maximum payload, was another requirement, although this provision was removed in July 1938. The envisioned cruising speed of the bomber was to be a minimum of at . The Air Ministry had expectations for an aircraft of similar weight to the B.1/35 specification but smaller and faster.

Avro had already started work on a corresponding design prior to having received a formal invitation to tender. The company was in competition with Boulton Paul, Bristol, Fairey, Handley Page and Shorts. Vickers also had its Warwick, which had Napier Sabre engines but eventually chose against tendering it. In early 1937, the Avro design and the rival Handley Page HP.56 were accepted and prototypes of both ordered but in mid-1937, the Air Ministry exercised their right to order the types "off the drawing board". This skipping of the usual process was necessary due to the initiation of a wider expansion of the RAF in expectation of another great European war. From 1939, it was expected that the P.13/36 would begin replacing the RAF's medium bombers, such as the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Handley Page Hampden and Vickers Wellington.

The Avro design used the Rolls-Royce Vulture 24-cylinder X-block engine, which was two Rolls-Royce Peregrine Vee cylinder blocks mounted one on top of the other, the bottom one inverted to give the "X" shape. When developed in 1935, the Vulture engine had promise — it was rated at but it proved woefully unreliable and had to be derated to . Avro's prototype Manchester L7246, was assembled by their experimental department at Manchester's Ringway Airport and first flew on 25 July 1939, with the second aircraft following on 26 May 1940. The Vulture engine was chosen by Avro and not stipulated by the Air Ministry as is sometimes claimed; other engine layouts considered were the use of two Bristol Hercules or Bristol Centaurus radial engines. Buttler states the Ministry specified prototypes with Hercules and Vulture engines and Sinnott rebuts the assertion. The Handley Page HP.56, always intended as the back-up to the Avro, was redesigned to take four engines on the orders of the Air Ministry in 1937, when the Vulture was already showing problems.

thumb|Avro Manchester Mk I (note additional central tail fin)

While the Manchester was designed with a twin tail, the first production aircraft, the Mk I, had a central fin added and twenty aircraft like this were built. They were succeeded by the Mk IA which reverted to the twin-fin system with enlarged and taller fins and rudders mounted on a new tailplane, with span increased from to . This configuration was carried over to the Lancaster, except for the first prototype, which also used a central fin and was a converted, unfinished Manchester. Avro constructed 177 Manchesters while Metropolitan-Vickers completed 32 aircraft. Plans for Armstrong Whitworth and Fairey Aviation at Ringway (now Manchester Airport) to build the Manchester were abandoned. Fairey's order for 150 Manchesters was replaced by orders for the Halifax.

Design

thumb|The forward section of a Manchester Mark I at Waddington, Lincolnshire, showing the nose with the bomb-aimer's window, the forward gun-turret and the cockpit, September 1941

The Avro Manchester was designed with great consideration for ease of manufacture and repair. The fuselage of the aircraft comprised longitudinal stringers or longerons throughout, over which an external skin of aluminium alloy was flush-riveted for a smooth external surface. The tail shared a similar construction to the wing, featuring a twin fin-and-rudder configuration that provided good vision for the dorsal gunner.

The cockpit housed the pilot and fighting controller's position underneath the canopy, and these two crew members were provided with all-round vision. The navigator was seated aft of the fighting controller and the position included an astrodome for use of a sextant. For crew comfort on lengthy missions, a rest area was situated just to the rear of the main cabin.

The aircraft's undercarriage was entirely retractable via hydraulic systems, or in an emergency, a backup air system.

The Manchester was powered by a pair of Vulture engines; in service these proved to be extremely unreliable. Aviation author Jon Lake stated of the Vulture: "The engine made the Manchester mainly notable for its unreliability, poor performance, and general inadequacy to the task at hand" and attributed the aircraft's poor service record to the engine troubles.</blockquote>

Operational history

thumb|right|Avro Manchester Mk IA

On 5 August 1940, the first production Avro Manchester, L7276, was delivered to RAF Boscombe Down in advance of service acceptance trials. The Manchester's first operational mission was conducted on 24–25 February 1941 in a raid on the French port of Brest. On 13 March 1941, L7319 became the first Manchester to be shot down by enemy fire.

On 13 April 1941, all Manchesters were temporarily grounded due to a higher than expected number of engine bearing failures; on 16 June 1941, a second grounding of the type was ordered due to more engine troubles. The unserviceability of the Vulture engine forced squadrons to make use of obsolete bombers such as the Hampden in its place. Upon the restart of operations in August 1941, additional failings were encountered; excessive tail flutter, hydraulic failures and faulty propeller feathering controls. Production of the Manchester was halted in November 1941, by which point a total of 202 aircraft had been constructed. A total of eight bomber squadrons were equipped with the type, it also served in two further squadrons and also saw use by RAF Coastal Command. On 3 March 1942, out of a force of nearly 200 bombers sent against a Renault factory near Paris, 25 were Manchesters; while during the first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne on 30 May 1942, 35 Manchesters were amongst the 1,047 bombers sent to attack the city. Flying Officer Leslie Manser was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions while piloting Manchester L7301 of 50 Squadron during the Cologne bombing mission.

The Mk III Manchester (serial number BT308) which first flew on 9 January 1941, was essentially the first Lancaster, featuring a longer wing fitted with four Rolls-Royce Merlins in new unitized, power-egg nacelles – originally developed by Rolls-Royce for the Merlin-powered Beaufighter II – although initially retaining the three fins and twin outboard rudders (the central fin had no movable control surface) of the Manchester I. BT308 received the "Lancaster" name immediately after its first flight. The second prototype Lancaster DG595 featured the twin, enlarged fins and rudders of the Manchester IA. Manchester production continued until November of that year but some aircraft that were still in production were instead completed as Lancasters.

The 193 operational Manchesters flew 1,269 sorties with Bomber Command, dropping 1,826 tons (1,657 tonnes) of bombs and lost 78 aircraft in action, flying its last operation against Bremen on 25 June 1942. A further 45 were non-operational losses of which 30 involved engine failure. The Manchester was withdrawn from operations in mid-1942 in favour of more capable aircraft. Its final role in RAF service was as instructional trainers for converting crews to the RAF's new Lancaster bombers; the Manchester and Lancaster shared nearly identical crew positions and fuselages.

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Royal Canadian Air Force
No. 408 Squadron RCAF
No. 420 Squadron RCAF

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Royal Air Force
No. 49 Squadron RAF at RAF Scampton (April 1942 – June 1942)
No. 50 Squadron RAF at RAF Skellingthorpe (April 1942 – June 1942)
No. 61 Squadron RAF at RAF Hemswell (June 1941 – June 1942)
No. 83 Squadron RAF at RAF Scampton (December 1941 – June 1942)
No. 97 Squadron RAF at RAF Waddington then RAF Coningsby (February 1941 – February 1942)
No. 106 Squadron RAF at RAF Coningsby (February 1942 – June 1942)
No. 207 Squadron RAF at RAF Waddington then RAF Bottesford (November 1940 – March 1942)
No. 25 Operation Training Unit at RAF Finningley
No. 44 Conversion Flight
No. 1485 Flight RAF
No. 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit
No. 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit
No. 1660 Heavy Conversion Unit
No. 1668 Heavy Conversion Unit
Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment
Torpedo Development Unit at RAF Gosport

Specifications (Manchester Mk I)

330px|right|Orthographic projection of the Avro Manchester Mk I, with profile detail of Mk.IA

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Bowyer, Chaz. Aircraft Profile No. 260: Avro Manchester. Windsor, UK: Profile Publications, 1974.
Buttler, Tony. British Secret Projects: Fighters and Bombers 1935–1950. Hickley, UK: Midland Publishing, 2004. .
Jackson, A.J. Avro Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, Second edition, 1990. .
Lake, Jon. The Great Book of Bombers: The World's Most Important Bombers from World War I to the Present Day. Zenith Imprint, 2002. .
Lewis, Peter. The British Bomber since 1914. London: Putnam, Second edition, 1974. .
"Manchesters". Aeromilitaria No. 2. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1990.
Mason, Francis K. The British Bomber since 1914. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. .
Sinnott, Colin. The RAF and Aircraft Design 1923–1939: Air Staff Operational Requirements (Studies in Air Power). London: Frank Cass, 2001. .
Thetford, Owen. Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918–57. London: Putnam, First edition, 1957. .

External links

Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary – Avro Manchester
History, Specifications and Pictures of the Avro Manchester
The Lancaster & Manchester Bomber Archive
1941 British Pathe news report on the newly introduced Avro Manchester