Avro Manchester

The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine medium bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the famed and vastly more successful four-engined Avro Lancaster, which would become one of the most capable strategic bombers of the Second World War.

Avro designed the Manchester in conformance with the requirements laid out by the British Air Ministry Specification P.13/36, which sought a capable medium bomber with which to equip the Royal Air Force (RAF) and to replace its inventory of twin-engine bombers, such as the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Handley Page Hampden and Vickers Wellington. Performing its maiden flight on 25 July 1939, the Manchester entered squadron service in November 1940, barely twelve months following the outbreak of the conflict.

Operated by both RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF); primarily as a result of its underdeveloped, underpowered and unreliable engines, the Manchester came to be regarded as an operational failure. Production was terminated in 1941; however, the Manchester was redesigned into a four-engined heavy bomber, powered by the Merlin engine instead, which became known as the Lancaster.