The Avro Manchester

 

Type:                          Heavy bomber

 

Engines:                    2 x 1760hp Rolls-Royce Vulture

 

Wingspan:                 90ft 1in

 

Length:                      68ft 10in

 

Height:                       19ft 6in

 

Weight:                      Empty             29,440lb

 

                                    Loaded           50,000lb

 

Armament                  8 x 0.303 machine guns in nose, dorsal and tail turrets

 

Bombload;                 10,350lb of bombs

 

Max speed:               265mph

 

Ceiling:                      19,200ft

 

Range:                       1,630miles

 

Production:               201

 

 

The Manchester was a classic example of an aircraft that looked magnificent on the design board, but proved to be a failure in action. With a heavy bombload the aircraft should have been a useful weapon of war while the gun turret on the top of the aircraft should have provided additional defence, as should the rear turret, which carried four machine guns in place of the usual two. However the sturdy, well designed fuselage and wings were let down by the engines. These proved to be dangerously unreliable and prone to bursting into flames at high revs. Directional instability forced Avro to add a third central tail fin to later production aircraft, and to make the t(f)ailplanes larger. Only a few months after entering combat, the Manchester was withdrawn from service.