Avro Anson Mk II

[m charters]

I am wondering if any of you Prairie or Western Canada WIXers know who ended up with this Anson?

I took this photo in 1988 near Elkhorn Manitoba (I think according to my notes) and wondered if it is still there or did it end up in a museum somewhere? Also who owned it then?

The third photo a Cornell canopy can be seen over the items just to the right of the silo at the same location.

Sorry about the quality of the scan, I haven't figured out my new scanner yet to copy all of my old photos.

[Tom H]

If I remember right I think this is one of the ones that ended up at the Nanton Lancaster Museum...Now the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.

I do believe they are the current worlld centre of recovered Ansons...seems they made the effort to gather the loose ones on the Prairies.

Check with the /Curator Dave Birrel (Splng)
his e mail is on their website http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/

Tom

[peter]

Tom,
Bomb evans is Curator not Dave unless somethings changed? I would think this one might have been recovered by BCATP Museum in Brandon. A bit far for Nanton??

[Tom H]

You are right about Bob and Dave

My apologies...overtired (again)

I would check with Nanton though....something rings a bell on this one.

Tom

[m charters]

Thanks guys...I was surprised how much of it was there intact.
The wings were long but gone. And who knows where the engines were.
We have some flight controls and such in Hamilton from one that we brought pieces of back from a farm west of London Ontario many years ago.
Would love to see one completed to fly.

[peter]

Tom,
100% confirmed it was not recovered by Nanton. They only recovered ansons in Alberta. There is a slight chance it was recovered by BCATP Museum in Brandon or Moose Jaw? Any further info on its location??

[RareBear]

I'm pretty sure Bob Diemert had the remains of an Anson at his place in Carman, Manitoba, in the mid-70's. I recall seeing it there several times.

Walt

[m charters]

Well as I said, this was near Elkhorn around 1988 and i think it was just off the Trans Canada Hwy. I should have been more nosy and went door knocking back then. Is there any wings stored that have the making of a pattern out there to complete a flyer?
Does Nanton have a complete airframe with a wing?

[Forgotten Field]

Anybody know how the wing is constructed? Is it a single spar like the UC-78, or did they manage to make a more difficult wing to rebuild? What turret is mounted on the Anson? Are they available? I always liked the looks of the Anson.

BTW, I have a pair of Jacobs magneto/distributor switches with a tag on them with an aircraft number which I am assuming belonged to an Anson or Bamboo Bomber.

[m charters]

Interesting to note for the Americans here is that the United States used 50 Ansons designated the AT-20. I have never seen one in US markings. Anyone have any photos of one?
I would have to actually dig into manuals to give you a detailed description of the wing, but as I recall from a school project I did years ago on aircraft contruction, the Anson was dual spar using Sitka Spruce and fir held together with Casein Glues. Bits and pieces survice across Canada of turrets with the largest amount of surviving Anson parts on the Prairies.

[Tom H]

Anybody know how the wing is constructed? Is it a single spar like the UC-78, or did they manage to make a more difficult wing to rebuild? What turret is mounted on the Anson? Are they available? I always liked the looks of the Anson.

BTW, I have a pair of Jacobs magneto/distributor switches with a tag on them with an aircraft number which I am assuming belonged to an Anson or Bamboo Bomber.

We restored our Anson at the Alberta Aviation Museum to static from the parts of many.

One of the biggest most difficult parts was recreating the wing.

It is an all wood one piece wing that the fuselage drops on to...very similar to the Fokker Super Universal Wing the older volunteers tell me.

Making the project a little more difficult is the bomb bays are built into the wing on the inside of the engine nacelles..

No reason it could not be reproduced to an airworthy standard and the drawings are available we might even still have ours in archives.

But if I was going to do it I would probly do a Mark V with Pratts.

Tom

[andyman64]

there is one being restored at the canadian airforce museum in trenton and it does have a one piece wing should be a beauty when its done if it looks half as good as the halifax they have a tracker sitting out side unrestored but nobody seems to know much about iti took a bunch of pics of it and the argus the other day any one want to see them?

[Mark_Pilkington]

.
The Avro Anson wing is a single piece 56' span wooden wing, it is based on the wooden Fokker wing of the 1920's as Avro had previously licence built the Fokker FVIIB/3M (as per Kingsford Smiths "Southern Cross") as the Avro "Ten" model 618 of 47' length, and 71' wing span, using 3x 240hp Armstrong Siddley Lynx engines.

The Fokker and the Avro "Ten" were trimotors with steel tube fuselages and high mounted wing of 71' span.

Avro later built scaled down versions of this series called the Avro "Five" model 619 and Avro "Six" model 624 which were scaled down 5 and 6 seater versions of 37' length, with a 47' wing span and using 3x 105hp Armstrong Siddley Genet engines.

The Anson model 652, developed as a 6 seater civil airliner in 1933 of 42' length and 52' wing span, is an obvious and natural evolution of that design concept by relocating the wing to the low mounted position, retaining a steel tube fuselage, and fitting retractable undercarriage.

The removal of the large fixed undercarriage and use of more powerful engines 2x 270hp Armstrong Siddley Cheetahs allowed a twin engined configuration to be used, and obviously the steel tube fuselage frame is to a new layout design, but retains the Fokker design concept.

The Military Avro Anson model 652A was developed in 1935, largely the same design, and therefore the design of the wooden Avro Anson wing therefore bears great resemblance to the wooden Fokker wing due to its direct ancestry.

The Anson wing had a novel feature of the wooden trailing edge being held on with metal hinge brackets and piano wire to allow for removal for repair or wing transportation, and the mark I introduced wing flaps later in its production.

The Canadian Anson V departs from the original Anson 1 design in the use of a plywood monocoque fuselage in place of the steel tube frame inherited from the Fokker design methods, but retains the fokker type wing.

The later Avro Anson XIX had a 3 piece metal wing, of the same span, plan and aerofoil, but in metal, effectively carrying the original Fokker wing design of the 1920's all the way into production the 1950's, and these later versions retained the steel tube fuselage inherited from Fokker all the way through to the end when the last of 11,020 Ansons were completed in 1952!

Regards

Mark Pilkington

[peter]

The anson in the pictures is also a MK1 not a Mk2.

Last edited by peter on Sun May 16, 2010 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

[andyman64]

here is a pic of the one under construction atthe trenton museum it has come a long way since the first time that i saw it[img]
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad11 ... os/077.jpg[/img]