AVRO SHACKLETON AEW.2

The Avro Shackleton was a British long-range naval patrol and reconnaissance aircraft and ZOP, metal-structure, spine-wing configuration. The drive was provided by 4 Rolls-Royce Griffon 57A engines with a capacity of 1985 HP each. The flight of the prototype took place in 1949, and serial production continued in 1951-1958, ending with the production of 181 copies of this aircraft. They were armed with two 20mm Hispano-Suiza cannons and up to 4,536 kg of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes. With the development of Soviet submarine weapons and based on the experience of the Battle of the Atlantic, the British Air Force Command came to the conclusion that it needed a new long-range patrol aircraft and ZOP. The task of creating such an aircraft was entrusted to Avro, which rebuilt the Avro Lincoln bomber for new tasks and using many components from Lancaster and Avro Tudor aircraft. This allowed to shorten the research and development work and led to the creation of a very successful aircraft, with a low failure rate, ensuring good crew comfort, and above all, with a range of over 3600 km, capable of staying in the air for 14 hours. Several versions of this aircraft were created in the course of serial production. The first mass-produced was the Shackleton MR.1, later a version of the Shackleton MR.2 with an elongated nose and slightly changed electronic equipment was created. In 1971, the AEW.2 version, the early warning aircraft, also appeared. There are also two training versions: T.2 and T.4, which were created from rebuilt Shackleton MR.1 and MR.2 machines. Avro Shackleton planes remained in line in Great Britain until 1991! South Africa turned out to be the only foreign recipient.