Avro made some great aircraft: the Avro 504K, the Lancaster, Snapshot 8’s subject, the Avro Shackleton, the Vulcan and the featured aircraft, the Avro Anson. Designed as the Avro 652 in response to a specification issued by Imperial Airways in May 1933 for a low-wing monoplane capable of carrying four to six passengers. Avro’s designer Roy Chadwick, who went on to create the Lancaster and the Shackleton, penned a design based upon a Fokker-style of fuselage, twin Cheetah radial engines and a retractable undercarriage. two prototypes were built at Woodford and delivered to Imperial at Croydon on March 11th 1934.
The RAF also showed early interest on behalf of Coastal Command and the 652A emerged fitted with a mid-upper gun turret, upgraded engines, square windows and provision for a small bomb load and a Vickers machine gun mounted alongside the cockpit. The Ministry ordered 174 aircraft in August 1935 and assigned the name ‘Anson’. Production models involved larger tail surfaces and a slight move forwards for the Cheetah IX engines to improve the CofG. The manually-lowered undercarriage was a novelty to the RAF of 1935 and led to a number of wheels-up landings.
By the outbreak of WW2, almost 1000 Ansons had been produced for the RAF and some overseas air arms. The Anson Mk 1 was serving with six RAF squadrons, including 233 Squadron at Leuchars, and four Auxiliary squadrons. An Anson flying from Detling in Kent attacked a U-boat on the third day of the war and, by 1940, Ansons were being fitted with extra machine guns. Ansons proved useful during the Dunkirk evacuation but their replacement in Coastal Command had already begun with the arrival of the Lockheed Hudson. Some Coastal aircraft had been moved to Bomber Command to familiarise crews with multi-engine monoplanes in what became Operational Training Units. A huge order for 1000 Ansons for training operations followed in 1939 to supplement aircraft being moved-on from the reconnaissance units. When the Commonwealth Air Training Plan was initiated in December 1939, it was the Anson which was stipulated as the twin-engine trainer. Aircraft which retained the turret were used for gunnery training.
Further large orders for the Anson benefited the air training schemes in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Rhodesia. Given the hazards of shipping aircraft across the Atlantic, Federal Aircraft Limited was set-up to build the Anson in Canada where modifications would be needed to deal with the winter climate. Nonetheless, over 1500 British-built Anson Mk 1s were shipped to Canada, often without engines. In the frozen North, carburetor heating was added to the Cheetah Xs and some aircraft were fitted with US-built Jacobs L-6MB engines with adapted cowlings. These were designated Anson Mk IIIs to distinguish them from the Canadian-built Anson Mk II which was also fitted with Jacobs radials and had a hydraulically-operated undercarriage. Some Mk II aircraft were supplied to the USA as AT-20s. The Mk IV was built only in small numbers using British airframes and Wright Whirlwind engines. The Mk V was built in Canada, primarily as a navigation trainer, and was fitted with Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines. From the beginning, Canadian-built models had used a moulded plastic-plywood nosecone made by the Vidal method. The Mk V had four of the five fuselage sections made from moulded plastic-bonded plywood with the assemblies joined using bolts or glue. Total Canadian production reached 2,882 aircraft.
In Britain, the Anson was used for training, general transport of Ait Transport Auxiliary pilots and as general squadron hacks. Aircraft built as transports were designated type X, XI and XII and often had strengthened floors and extra doors for stretcher embarkation. The Cheetah engines also evolved and, by the time the XI arrived, aircraft had acquired hydraulically-operated flaps and undercarriages and a perspex nose. The turret had gone and the greenhouse-style of windows had been replaced by square windows.
Following the end of WW2, many of the original Mk Is were sold-off and scrapped, often for bargain prices. Post-war production, however, continued with the XIX which was initially built as a civil third-level airliner to be operated by the Associated Airways Joint Committee. Development since the Mk I had seen the roof lifted and the entrance door positioned lower to make it more attractive for passengers. Better sound-proofing and furnishings were adopted. The RAF liked the new Mk XIX and ordered them as the C.19 Series 1 aircraft, initially with wooden wings, for use as a communications and training aircraft. C19 Series 2 followed with metal wings and some Series 1 C.19s were upgraded (including G-AGPG). Final versions included the T.20, T.21 and T.22 trainers. Production ended in May 1952 with a total of 8,138 aircraft having been built in the UK, another 2,882 in Canada. This was therefore Avro’s largest production run, surpassing the Lancaster. It was another sixteen years before the Anson was finally retired from the RAF in June 1968.
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