Avro Tudor

what is it?

The Avro Type 688 Tudor was a British piston-engined airliner based on Avro's four-engine Lincoln bomber, itself a descendant of the famous Lancaster heavy bomber, and was Britain's first pressurised airliner. Customers saw the aircraft as little more than a pressurised DC-4, and few orders were forthcoming, important customers preferring to buy US aircraft. The tailwheel undercarriage layout was also dated and a disadvantage.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 piston engines with propellers · 36.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 467 km/htop speed
• seats 24passengers
• size 34.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 34made 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 81 years ago, in 1945.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.6× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 36.6 m: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 6 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.0× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

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

spec sheet

first flight

1945-06-14

introduced

1947

retired

1959

status

retired

number built

34

role

airliner

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Avro

engines

4× Rolls-Royce Merlin 100

crew

5

passengers

24

length

24.2 m

wingspan

36.6 m

height

6.7 m

max take-off weight

34.5 t

top speed

467 km/h

cruise speed

389 km/h

range

—

ceiling

9,174 m

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