AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 125 / 292

Plate 125 of 292 · Second World War · Medium bomber

Avro Manchester

Manchester IA, L7486, painted as L7486, an Avro Manchester Mk IA of No. 207 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, in 1941: the Lancaster’s twin-engined parent, a mid-wing bomber with two 24-cylinder Rolls-Royce Vulture engines in long nacelles, the enlarged twin fins and rudders of the Mk IA with no central fin, a glazed nose with an FN5 turret, an FN7 mid-upper turret, an FN4A tail turret and the long bomb bay the Lancaster inherited, shown tail down on its wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green above, black under-surfaces, fins and rudders, with the black carried high up the fuselage sides, a yellow-ringed roundel on each side of the fuselage, red and blue roundels on the upper wings, red, white and blue flashes on the fins, the serial ‘L7486’ aft of the fuselage roundel and black propellers with yellow tips, as photographed on an air test shortly after delivery, before any squadron codes were applied (no Manchester survives; the shape was taken from two published three-views cross-checked against photographs, and the fuselage shared with the Lancaster; only the port side of L7486 is photographed, so the starboard side follows it, and the small stencils are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as L7486, an Avro Manchester Mk IA of No. 207 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, in 1941: the Lancaster’s twin-engined parent, a mid-wing bomber with two 24-cylinder Rolls-Royce Vulture engines in long nacelles, the enlarged twin fins and rudders of the Mk IA with no central fin, a glazed nose with an FN5 turret, an FN7 mid-upper turret, an FN4A tail turret and the long bomb bay the Lancaster inherited, shown tail down on its wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green above, black under-surfaces, fins and rudders, with the black carried high up the fuselage sides, a yellow-ringed roundel on each side of the fuselage, red and blue roundels on the upper wings, red, white and blue flashes on the fins, the serial ‘L7486’ aft of the fuselage roundel and black propellers with yellow tips, as photographed on an air test shortly after delivery, before any squadron codes were applied (no Manchester survives; the shape was taken from two published three-views cross-checked against photographs, and the fuselage shared with the Lancaster; only the port side of L7486 is photographed, so the starboard side follows it, and the small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.3 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Manchester I & IA); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Manchester IA, L7486 modelled here.

History

The Manchester

The Manchester was Avro’s answer to Air Ministry specification P.13/36, which asked for a twin-engined bomber able to carry a heavy load a long way. Roy Chadwick’s design was built round two Rolls-Royce Vultures, each in effect a pair of Kestrel V-12s joined on one crankshaft to make an engine of 24 cylinders. The prototype, L7246, first flew from Ringway in July 1939.

No. 207 Squadron re-formed with the type at Waddington in November 1940 and flew its first raid, on Brest, in February 1941. The airframe was sound and the bomb bay large, but the Vultures were underpowered and unreliable, and engine failures and fires grounded the fleet more than once. The first Manchesters had a small central fin between the twin fins; the Mk IA dropped it and used larger fins and rudders instead.

Only 202 were built, by Avro and Metropolitan-Vickers, and the type left front-line service in June 1942. By then Avro had fitted a lengthened Manchester wing with four Merlins, and the result was the Lancaster: many airframes ordered as Manchesters were completed as Lancasters on the same production lines. No Manchester survives.

This airframe

Manchester IA L7486

L7486The airframe modelled

L7486 was a Manchester Mk IA delivered to No. 207 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, in 1941. No Manchester survives, so the model shows an airframe that photographs record well: L7486 was photographed from another aircraft on an air test shortly after delivery, before any squadron codes had been applied, and those pictures, held by the Imperial War Museum, show its port side clearly. The model shows it as they do: Dark Earth and Dark Green above and black below, with the black carried high up the fuselage sides, a yellow-ringed roundel on the fuselage, red, white and blue fin flashes and the serial aft of the roundel. Its shape was taken from two published three-views and checked against photographs; only the port side is photographed, so the starboard side follows it.

Where to see one

Not on charge

No Manchester survives. Its airframe lives on in the Lancaster, of which seventeen survive worldwide, with two still flying.

All 292 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.