Warbird Information Exchange

I have a vintage sales brochure from the late 40's distributed by Avro Canada for the Avro Tudor II passenger aircraft. Now as far as I know, Avro Canada never built any Tudor IIs, so were they planning on building them and something disrupted that plan, or were they simply "testing the water" so to speak on the potential demand for the aircraft in Canada?

Interesting!

Don't know for certain, but a couple guesses...first, perhaps Avro Canada had in mind building, or at least marketing, the Tudor as a long-range counterpart to their own medium-range C102 Jetliner; second, Canadair were gearing up postwar to produce the North Star, which was a DC-4 with Merlin 620 engines, thus a close counterpart to the Tudor, perhaps Avro were trying to compete with that project.

I will say that I believe the abandonment of the C102 was a far greater error than the cancellation of the Arrow fighter six years later...by 1959 the company was completely dependent on military orders; if they'd had a line of civilian designs to fall back on, today's Bombardier might well incorporate the former Avro as well as Canadair and DHC...

(Maybe this link between Avro Canada and the Tudor goes some way to explain, too, why it is that so many writers slip up and refer to the Canadair CT-114 as the "Avro Tutor" or even "Avro Tudor"!)

However abortive the project was...good score finding that document!

S.

There was a British airliner that was proposed for Australian production about that time. It got to the mockup stage! I think it was the Tudor, I'll have to try and find that ref.

As well as a smaller market than Canada, Australia never had an 'Avro' factory either, which is interesting.

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Old manufacturers brochures can be fascinating. I have an example of what would have been the worlds fastest piston-engined airliner IF it had gone into production, Republic Aviations RC-2 which was essentially a Rainbow with windows.

According to Putnam's "Canadian Aircraft Since 1909", after Victory Aircraft became A.V.Roe Canada in 1945 a contract was negotiated for 5 Avro 689F Tudor IIFs for the RCAF. The intention being to use many components of the Lincoln Xvs. Specification AIR-16-6 outlined the requirements and the Tudor IIF was to be of the same general external appearance as the Tudor II but with some differences for function and to utilize equipment originally procured for Lincoln XVs. The basic design was done at Manchester (UK) with mods to RCAF requirements by A.V.Roe Canada. Although much was done on the project it was cancelled in Sep 46 and parts made were scrapped.

Tim

Here's a little of the history of the Avro Tudor.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=HZk48bIkz4I

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“Try to fly in the middle of the air. The edges are filled with mountains and oceans and rocks and it’s much harder to fly there.”

Consul's post makes a lot of sense. Avro Canada was in the process of switching from building Lancasters to building Lincolns when the war ended, and actually delivered one Lincoln to the RCAF. I believe the Tudor used some components from the Lincoln, including wing panels. In any case, Avro Canada was very familiar with the Avro processes, drawings, specifications, etc by 1945, and switching to Tudors would have been relatively easy - if the orders had come.

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Bill Walker
Canadian Military Aircraft Serials
www.ody.ca/~bwalker/

Wow, thanks for all the information. Makes me wonder how many (if any ) other sales brochures for an Avro-Canada made Tutor II still exist if the program was on for so short a time. It'll hold a place of honour in my slowly growing Avro Canada memorabelia collection.

Not really on topic but one Tudor did fly in Canada as CF-FCY operated by Lome Airways out of Malton as a freighter. I didn't last very long in Canada.

Jim