Avro Manchester – Any in existance?

Manchester, France

Are there any significant parts of a Machester in existence, I dont think I recall seeing any at the various museums I have been to…..

Sorry to be late to the party! I understand that at least one engine from Manchester L7485 is kept at the aviation museum at la Baule, France. Apparently it crashed into the sea off Batz-sur-Mer and the engine was caught in the trawl of a fishing boat in 1989. From the photos which I have seen, the engine is in a heavily corroded state. Whether the crash site was recorded and whether any attempt has been made to recover additional components, I do not know.

RAFM has three Rollls-Royce Vulture’s, two came as a pair in 1978, with a third from the Danish Air Force in 1988. All three are ex crash sites and so their condition is less less than “factory finish”!

Hi
so if broken apart they could build a peregrine or two 😀
cheers
jerry

Evening all,

The Lincolnshire Echo, the local rag for the area around Lincoln, had a photo of the Manchester in its bygone days pages last year sometime.

I recall it said that the USAF planned to use it for fire and crash rescue training, so I assume its fate was rapidly sealed….

Tim

re

i had allways confused this story with the last hampden which survived into the 1960s. any details?

Yes, there is one, it was seen in the late 70’s and the way it was described to me, it was definately a Manchester, it’s not in the UK. It would, I believe be a good candidate for a recovery, if the will and funds exist, I did mention it to a large Uk museum, no interest there, though.

where is it & what state(the latter will do if you cant divulge its location)?

Manchester

Yes, there is one, it was seen in the late 70’s and the way it was described to me, it was definately a Manchester, it’s not in the UK. It would, I believe be a good candidate for a recovery, if the will and funds exist, I did mention it to a large Uk museum, no interest there, though.

Avro Manchester

Thanks, Cees
Another piece of the jigsaw.
Regards
Paul

I quote from Avro Manchester, the legend behind the Lancaster by Robert Kirby:

Following it’s withdrawal from active service, L7420 was used by both the RAF and USAAF for dinghy and ditching training. On 13th june 1956 it was salvaged from a flooded gravel pit of the Lincolnshire Sand & Gravel Co on the Burton Estate by aircrews from USAF Sturgate. It is assumed to be scrapped following recovery.

Unquote

This text was accompanied by two photo’s showing the fuselage and centresection on the back of American salvage vehicles. Wonder what happened to it.

Cheers

Cees

Avro Manchester

Further to my earlier post in this thread, a bit more research has revealed (“Lancaster – The Story of a Famous Bomber” by Bruce Robertson, 1964) that the Burton Gravel Pit Manchester was L7420 which served with 25 OTU, 49 Sqn, and 1660/61 CU’s “Used by USAAF for ditching training 1945 and RAF later. Dumped sandpit, Lincs, 1956”.
The inference (though not actually stated) is that it was still there when the book was published, so I guess that it is just possible that it may have survived there until the 1970’s.
Regards
Paul

RAFM has three Rollls-Royce Vulture’s, two came as a pair in 1978, with a third from the Danish Air Force in 1988. All three are ex crash sites and so their condition is less less than “factory finish”!

A few years ago I went on a visit to the old RAFM facility at Cardington and IIRC there was a Vulture engine that had been recovered from the sea. Does anyone know any more?

John

According to the various posts above the answer unfortunately is no.
We have dug a Manchester but this were only crashremains and bits of the engines. A ditched Manchester would be the only way, or converting a Lancaster back to Machester specs but that would be blasphemy according to some fans:D Only problem would be the Vulture engines
I wouldn’t mind though
Cheers

Cees

Are there any significant parts of a Machester in existence, I dont think I recall seeing any at the various museums I have been to…..

What I can’t understand is why a military unit would go to the bother of digging up a rare fusalage from a gravel pit (using alot of effort and expense), just to scrap it? Especially in the days when there were thousands of aircraft being scrapped.
Wondering if there is more of a story to this.

Must admit I much prefer Hendons Halifax as it is, it’s a good memoral to WWII bomber aircrew. I didn’t think it was ever a contender for a restoration.

Nothing like a spot of Hendon bashing, not 😡 🙁 😡 🙁

Anyway, from what I remember off the top of my head (why I answer these questions when I’m not in the office where the info is in black and white I’ll never know!) R5868 (‘Sugar’) started life on the production line as a Manchester fuselage but was finished as a Lancaster. You could argue then that there a bit of a Manchester surviving in a way. Of course how much of R5868 is the original rather than wartime repair/rebuild and subsequently post preservation restoration will cloud that argument by degrees…

(And that last statement is not something you can level at Halifax W1048 :diablo: )

this idea continues on today recovering rare airframes and leaving them to rot
1 W1048
2the collection at long marston.
3.concorde.
.

I wouldn’t say anything at Long Marston is rare, and to be honest, I’d say the effort of recovering some of the airframes to display standard is not going to be worth it… Certainly I’d be scrapping the Shack before she turns into the Shack version of the Blackpool Vulcan.

If one of these IE neds who regularly feel the need to photograph the internals of this airframe hurt themselves and have the audacity to sue the owner, I think it is likely the scrapyard is going to be the most likely route…

Sorry if this is slightly off topic…

Scotty

The Hendon Halifax is undoubtedly an aircraft where the original promise of a restoration in much the same way as the Canadian example wasn’t fullfilled.
It’s interesting to look back at FlyPast circa October 1982 and see some of her former crew supporting the effort to restore her.
The collection at Long Marsden is owned by a number of owners. None of them are for sale at present due to a variety of reasons and neither is it a case where the owners are holding out a large sum of money for them .

this idea continues on today recovering rare airframes and leaving them to rot
1 W1048
2the collection at long marston.
3.concorde.
.

W1048 is fine as it is thank you very much. If it moves Veterans to tears and they are happy with it who am I to argue?

The Collection at Long Marston. If it worries you so much then why not just offer the owners an inordinately large amount of money and then you can look after them.

Concorde. I am sure the people at East Fortune, or at Manchester and Brooklands for that matter, will be very pleased to hear that you think they are leaving their Concordes to rot.

Regards,

kev35

The fifties was only a short periode after the war, people had other things to do than preserving aircraft. Although at that same periode the prototype Mosquito was being saved after De Havilland ordered it to be burnt. Must be a matter of perspective.
It’s still happening
Cheers

Cees

Why would a rare airframe (even then) be recovered at great effort, only to be scrapped?

this idea continues on today recovering rare airframes and leaving them to rot
1 W1048
2the collection at long marston.
3.concorde.
.