Avro, formally A.V. Roe & Company, was a British aircraft manufacturer established in Manchester in 1910. Its output ranged from early training biplanes to heavy bombers, maritime-patrol aircraft and civil transports. The company became an important constituent of Hawker Siddeley's aviation interests.[1]
Early growth
Alliott and Humphrey Verdon-Roe founded the business at Brownsfield Mill. The Avro 500 was an early production design, followed by the Avro 504 in 1913. Military orders drove expansion into larger Manchester premises, and the 504 became a widely used training aircraft during and after the First World War. Avro's development therefore combined the founder's experimental flying with a rapidly expanding industrial organisation serving government customers.[1]
Wartime bomber development
Under Roy Chadwick, Avro developed the Manchester and its four-engine successor, the Lancaster. The Manchester's troubled Vulture powerplants prompted a redesign using four Merlins and a larger wing. The Lancaster entered Bomber Command service in 1942 and was adapted for conventional bombing and specialised heavy weapons. Its descendants included the Lincoln, while transport and reconnaissance work drew on the same engineering lineage. Avro's factories formed part of a wider production system, with components and aircraft assemblies moving between industrial sites.[2]
Ownership and later programmes
Alliott sold his interest in 1928, and Avro became part of the Armstrong Siddeley organisation before joining Hawker Siddeley in 1935. The company retained its own name while producing aircraft including the Anson, York, Tudor, Shackleton and Vulcan. Its identity was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation during the early 1960s. The Avro name later reappeared as a marketing identity for British Aerospace's Avro RJ regional jets, rather than as a revival of the original independent company.[1]