Unassuming Failure Turned British Hero - Avro Manchester

The Avro Manchester was a failure, without question. However, a masterful aircraft lay within her sleek lines, waiting to rear its head and become a British legend. This is the story of how an unassuming, unreliable bomber pulled quickly from service, became one of the most iconic aircraft of all time.

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[raymondyee]

I still remember what a documentary on the Lancaster said:

“Avro’s chief designer Sir Roy Chadwick had little faith in the Vulture engine and accepted it with the greatest reluctance possible. He was however convinced that the Manchester airframe was a sound design.”

[strayling]

The Manchester always reminds me of a rule of thumb in software engineering: Expect to throw the first version away.

[philiphumphrey]

It could be why the Lancaster has such a superb reputation, most of the difficult development and problems happened while it was called Manchester. The Handley Page Halifax underperformed and had various problems early in its career, it was equipped with Merlin engines originally but those didn't suit it. People tend to forget that the later models fitted with Bristol Hercules engines performed almost as well as the Lancaster and could carry a similar bombload.

[Curious-Minds]

Brilliant video. I love the personal and individual stories

[omlmm]

To start with the Peregrine engine was never a good engine and the '1, 000 hp' engine the ministry demanded was not just two Peregrines bolted together, but rather four Peregrine cylinder blocks mounted on a brand new crankcase. As mentioned it had lubrication and cooling problems that were never satisfactory resolved. Again as mentioned, the answer was to redesign the wing to carry four Merlins.

It should be pointed out that the PV12 (later to be renamed 'Merlin') had a troublesome beginning but eventually became one of the best and most reliable piston aero engines ever built, with the help of ethylene glycol (from the USA) and a genius called Stanley Hooker.

[neiloflongbeck]

Handley Page was awarded a contract by the Air Ministry to build the HP.56 in April 1937, but in July 1937, the Air Ministry requested that the HP.56 was redesigned to take 4 RR Merlin engines (on the orders of the Chief of the Air Staff). After much argument over the Merlins Handley Page agreed, better to have a contract than not. The Air Ministry was already having doubts about the RR Vulture and didn't want two medium bombers that were handicapped by an unreliable engine (although RR was confident that they could solve the engine's problems). Work started on the HP.57 started on 18th August 1937.

This is set out in Tony Buttler's book British Secret Projects - Fighters and Bombers 1935-1950.

[TheLateBird]

Love it! (The sound effect at 2:57 had me chuckling!)

[MichaelCampin]

Have you done a video on the Avro Lincoln?

[ianbell]

Great video.

Thank you


Cheers

[RemusKingOfRome]

great video. Manchester was the test-bed for the Lancaster. Why did they need the Manchester ? they had the Wellington, proven aircraft.

[rchassereau]

Good video but strongly urge you to drop Betterhelp

[ericbrammer]

Ah, the Brits, doing what Boeing did with the B-29; Build a Plane, but not PROVE OUT the Engines! Splendid Logic, Brilliant Engineering!

[womble]

Don't forget by the time it left service they had fixed the problem. It appears it may have been deliberate sabotage as when engineers started stripping down engines and cleaning them before use a lot of the problems went away. They often found metal shavings in the engines.

[lllordllloyd]

There is a tendency to see failed engines in this context as simply duds. It is very likely that engines such as the Vulture, Peregrine, and Dagger could have been successful. But in 1940-42 there was no time, every engineer was needed just to keep the Merlin at the cutting edge, and develop the engines that looked more promising.

Given time the Manchester might well have worked- many of its quality control problems were very basic workmanship issues, the result of expanding industry so fast. But there was not time.

[nathanhall]

The Air Ministry seems to have had a penchant for unrealistic design requirements and poor choices of power plants.

[LenTexDIY]

Great video as always.

Just an FYI, review the lack of privacy of "Better Health". They're a privacy nightmare. Please stop promoting them. You're putting people's personal info in danger.

[Niinsa]

Very good video. Like it a lot. The Lancaster is one of my fav aircraft, after I built an Airfix model back in the seventies, as a kid. And the Manchester is the origin of the L.

[kevinjones]

Would it have been such a failure with merlin engines?

[Thatstrangeguy]

Is there any sort of hidden symbolism in your A logo?

[pcka]

A crap engine produced by Rolls Royce, who would have believed it!