AVRO MANCHESTER MK.I

The Avro Manchester was a British heavy bomber with a metal structure, with a retractable landing gear from the Second World War. The drive was provided by two motors Rolls-Royce Vulture I X-type with 1760 hp each. The flight of the prototype took place in 1939. During serial production, which lasted in 1940-1941, about 200 examples of this aircraft were produced. The armament was 8 7.7 mm machine guns and a load of up to 4538 kg of bombs. Avro Manchester was created in response to the specification of the British Air Force from 1936 looking for a new bomber with a long range, high load capacity bombs and strong protective armament. Due to the high bar, the work on the new bomber was slightly delayed and only in 1939 the first flight of the Avro Manchester prototype took place. The new aircraft met almost all the requirements set by the RAF and originally planned to purchase as many as 1,200 machines of this type, but due to the nature of military operations in 1939-1940, the British aviation industry focused primarily on the production of fighters. In addition, Vulture engines proved to be very unreliable, and Avro - trying to remedy this - developed the Avro Manchester aircraft, which eventually led to the creation of a very successful Lancaster aircraft, based to a large extent on Avro Manchester. During the short series production, only one development series of Avro Manchester aircraft was created, designated as Mk. IA, which had two vertical stabilizers, which significantly improved the bomber's stability. Manchester planes entered the airline in 1940, and in the period 1941-1942 were used in bombing flights over occupied Europe and Germany. By June 1942, they were replaced by Avro Lancaster bombers.