AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 162 / 234

Plate 162 of 234 · Early jet age · Four-jet transport research aircraft

Avro Ashton

Avro 706 Ashton 2 (1950), painted as WB491, the only Ashton 2, begun as the Tudor 2 G-AJJW and completed by Avro at Woodford as a four-jet research aircraft, first flown in 1951 and used by the Ministry of Supply for high-altitude and jet-transport research until Napier fitted an engine mount under its fuselage in 1955 and flew it as a Rolls-Royce Conway test bed; its forward fuselage survives at Newark Air Museum: Avro’s jet development of the Tudor airliner, of 120 ft span, with a pressurised Tudor fuselage, a tricycle undercarriage and four 5,000 lbf Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets in two paired underwing nacelles, shown complete, as it flew in 1951–54, standing slightly nose-down on its undercarriage: natural metal overall, a black anti-glare panel ahead of the windscreen, Type D roundels on the rear fuselage and above the outer wings, red, white and blue fin flashes, black ‘WB491’ on both sides of the rear fuselage followed by a small yellow prototype ‘P’, and large black ‘WB491’ under both wings (shape from the airwar.ru Ashton Mk 2 three-view, with the cabin windows, sun visor, paint and markings following air-to-air and ground photographs of WB491 and its sister aircraft).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as WB491, the only Ashton 2, begun as the Tudor 2 G-AJJW and completed by Avro at Woodford as a four-jet research aircraft, first flown in 1951 and used by the Ministry of Supply for high-altitude and jet-transport research until Napier fitted an engine mount under its fuselage in 1955 and flew it as a Rolls-Royce Conway test bed; its forward fuselage survives at Newark Air Museum: Avro’s jet development of the Tudor airliner, of 120 ft span, with a pressurised Tudor fuselage, a tricycle undercarriage and four 5,000 lbf Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets in two paired underwing nacelles, shown complete, as it flew in 1951–54, standing slightly nose-down on its undercarriage: natural metal overall, a black anti-glare panel ahead of the windscreen, Type D roundels on the rear fuselage and above the outer wings, red, white and blue fin flashes, black ‘WB491’ on both sides of the rear fuselage followed by a small yellow prototype ‘P’, and large black ‘WB491’ under both wings (shape from the airwar.ru Ashton Mk 2 three-view, with the cabin windows, sun visor, paint and markings following air-to-air and ground photographs of WB491 and its sister aircraft). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.7 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (nose section); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Avro 706 Ashton 2 (1950) modelled here.

History

The Ashton 2

The Ashton grew out of Avro’s Tudor, the piston-engined airliner that had disappointed both BOAC and its makers. In 1948 Avro fitted a Tudor 1 with four Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets, paired in two nacelles, as the Tudor 8, and its trials showed how much there was still to learn about flying a large jet transport. The Ministry of Supply ordered a better-equipped version, first called the Tudor 9 and then the Avro 706 Ashton: a Tudor 2 airframe with a shortened, pressurised fuselage, a nosewheel undercarriage and four Nenes in two long nacelles slung beneath the wing. Pairing the engines kept them close to the centre line, so the loss of one gave little asymmetric thrust.

The first Ashton, WB490, flew from Woodford on 1 September 1950 and was shown at the SBAC display at Farnborough a few days later, nearly fourteen months after the first flight of the de Havilland Comet. Five more followed: WB491, the Ashton 2, with a full airliner-standard pressurised cabin; three Ashton 3s, WB492, WB493 and WE670, for radar and bombing-equipment trials; and WB494, the Ashton 4, with a pressurised bomb-aimer’s gondola under the fuselage. None was ever meant to carry a paying passenger. They were flying laboratories, built to find out how a jet transport behaved at height, in cloud and icing, and in the busy circuit of an airfield.

In the 1950s the Ashtons became some of the most useful test beds in Britain. They tested pressurisation, de-icing, radar, navigation and bombing equipment for the RAE, and carried new engines for their makers: WB491 had an engine mounting fitted under its fuselage for Rolls-Royce trials with the Avon and Conway, and Bristol hung two Olympus turbojets under WB493’s wings, outboard of the Nenes, and later tested the Orpheus on it. WB493 also played the jet airliner ‘Atlas Phoenix’ in the 1960 film Cone of Silence. The Ashtons were withdrawn and scrapped once their work was done, and only WB491’s forward fuselage was saved.

This airframe

Avro Ashton 2 WB491

WB491The airframe modelled

WB491, the only Ashton 2, was converted at Woodford from a Tudor 2 airframe and flown by the Ministry of Supply from 1951 on high-altitude transport research, with an airliner-standard pressurised cabin fitted out for observers and test equipment. In the mid-1950s it was given a mounting under the fuselage and used by Rolls-Royce as a test bed for the Avon and Conway turbojets. When its flying ended it was broken up, but the forward fuselage was saved, and it is now displayed at Newark Air Museum, the only part of any Ashton left. The model shows WB491 complete, as it flew in its standard form in about 1951–54, before the engine mounting was fitted, standing slightly nose-down on its tricycle undercarriage: natural metal overall, a black anti-glare panel ahead of the windscreen and a sun visor above it, Type D roundels on the rear fuselage, red, white and blue fin flashes, black ‘WB491’ on both sides of the rear fuselage followed by a small yellow prototype ‘P’, and large black ‘WB491’ under both wings. No photograph shows the top of WB491’s wings, so the Type D roundels there follow its sister aircraft WB490 and WB494. The shape follows the airwar.ru three-view of the Ashton 2, scaled to the published span and length, with the cabin windows, visor, paint and markings taken from air-to-air and ground photographs of WB491.

See it at Newark Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Ashton 2 in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 234 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.