Avro Manchester

what is it?

The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the more famed and more successful four-engined Avro Lancaster, which was one of the most capable strategic bombers of the Second World War. Avro designed the Manchester in conformance with the requirements laid out by the British Air Ministry Specification P.13/36, which sought a capable medium bomber with which to equip the Royal Air Force (RAF) and to replace its twin-engine bombers, such as the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Handley Page Hampden and Vickers Wellington.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 piston engines with propellers · 27.5 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 426 km/htop speed
• range 1,930 kmwithout refuelling
• size 22.7 tmax take-off weight
• built 202made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 87 years ago, in 1939.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.3× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 27.5 m: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 4 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 1,930 km: 11× Amsterdam to Brussels.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1939-07-25

introduced

1940

retired

1942

status

retired

number built

202

role

heavy bomber

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Avro

engines

2× Rolls-Royce Vulture I / Rolls-Royce Vulture

crew

7

length

21.3 m

wingspan

27.5 m

height

5.9 m

max take-off weight

22.7 t

top speed

426 km/h

range

1,930 km

ceiling

5,852 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.