Visit to the AVRO Heritage Centre - BAE Systems Woodford

[Overkiller]

Hello all,

today, fellow forum member Geoff Baker and I finally managed to make a visit to the AVRO Heritage Centre, at the former BAE Systems site at Woodford. This was as a result of an invitation from the Heritage Foundation, that was extended to the IPMS UK Project Cancelled Special Interest Group last November.

We spent a very interesting day, starting with a guided tour of the displays, then moving on to the main area of interest to both of us, and of course the members of this forum, the projects...

Below are the best shots I took of some of the Project display models.

Cutaway display model of the Nimrod MRA4

Avro Atlantic airliner

An interesting box of wind tunnel shapes, including the Phase 3 Vulcan wing, and a selection of Skybolt missile iterations.

Civil V-22 Display model

Avro 758 Twin Dart Transporter

Avro 707B VTOL study

Avro 740 Airliner

4 Engined 748 AEW iteration

Avro 720 Rocket Interceptor

Avro 745, MPA contender that lost out in the NATO contest to the Breguet Atlantique

Avro 739 Model

Avro 725 two seat trainer derived from the 720

I am including a link to my photobucket album with the full set of pictures.

http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l206/Overkiller_2006/AVRO%20Heritage%20Centre%20Visit%20-%2024%20August%202012/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ20

The final part of our visit was the best part, when the big blue bound volumes, filled with project drawings, were brought out for us to page through, unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph these, we have made arrangements to obtain copies of items of interest for our future modelling plans, but on the strict understanding that these are for personal use only.

Overall a very good day out, much new inspiration was found, some interesting chats were had with the various people at AVRO Heritage, and for me personally, I am glad that my AVRO project scratchbuilds have now found a suitable home, as the Foundation gratefully accepted my offer of donating my AVRO 721 and AVRO 730 models to add to their project models display, plus future points of contact have been established between the SIG and Foundation.

I would like to extend a big thank you to all at AVRO Heritage Foundation for making our visit so enjoyable.

On a final note, apologies for the quality of the pictures, as I am not the best photographer in the world, also, if this is posted in the wrong place, please accept my apologies in advance.

Cheers

Duncan

 

[TsrJoe]

waw im impressed, some of those models i hadnt previously seen, many thanks indeed for sharing

cheers, Joe

 

[circle-5]

I always wondered what had happened to that Avro Atlantic model. Beautiful collection of projects! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Antonio]

What a treasure!, many thanks for sharing.

Many of it were unknown to me or previously unseen.

the big blue bound volumes

...OMG, what a privilege for an aerospace fanatic.

 

[Overkiller]

the big blue bound volumes

...OMG, what a privilege for an aerospace fanatic.

Indeed!

There was much of interest in these volumes, for me personally though, the biggest thrill was being able to browse through their collection of AVRO 730 drawings that they have already managed to scan into the drawing database they are creating, I have made a detailed list of the Initial Projects Department drawing numbers to aid me when I request copies thereof for my future efforts in modelling the various iterations of the 730. The drawings show much detail, including a fascinating 6 engined version, as well as details of the planned development program, right out to the 18th airframe, and the planned test and production schedules.

cheers

Duncan

 

[Stargazer]

This is an amazing collection and must be quite a place to visit... The Atlantic translucid model alone is a dream item! Thank you so much for the great pictures and previously unseen types such as the 758 or the VTOL 707B.

 

[worktroll]

Duncan,

I'm a longish-term lurker here, but I'm forced to break cover and thank you for sharing such a wonderful collection of photographs!

 

[Thorvic]

Yes it was great to meet the volunteers at the Avro Heritage Centre, George Jenks and David Fildes were particularly keen on the projects aspect of their work and were overjoyed when Duncan offered them the models of the 730 and 721 as neither were in their collection and both are of course in scale with some of their Vulcan diorama models.
I was doing the chatting whilst Duncan went mad with the camera on the Display models, thus i only managed a couple of shots of some of the models for my own reference just before we left :-\ .

The Avro Heritage Centre is located at the former Woodford Aerodrome BAE Systems facility near Stockport south of Manchester, as the Facility has now closed down after the cancellation and close down of the Nimrod program access to the centre is much easier and the use of cameras is now allowed. You still need to contact them in advance as the site is now undergoing demolition and redevelopment. The good news is that the Avro Heritage aspect has actually been a key aspect of the redevelopment plan that's been agreed for the site, so the Heritage centre will get a new larger dedicated building along side the Vulcan that will become a gate guardian for the new site. With the new facility they hope to be open longer including 1 day a weekend, have a much larger display and organise the archives.

 

[uk 75]

Duncan and Geoff

What a splendid thread and wonderful photos. I saw the avro projects thumbnails on another thread and now these glorious colour pics. I wish the Heritage Centre all the best for the future.

uk 75

 

[Jemiba]

Nothing more to say, than "Thank you very much !"
Good to see, how those items and sources are cared for. My personal favourite is the 725, out
of the often neglected field of trainer aircraft.

 

[Hobbes]

Kids in a candy store B)

Well done!

 

[pathology_doc]

That is just awesome. The Avro Atlantic reminds me of the description of the airplane in David Beaty's novel Cone of Silence, in which the "giant triangular wing" is mentioned. Somehow I don't see the general run of passengers being comfortable with the configuration or the backward seating, though I'm sure every schoolboy in late 1950s Britain - and possibly a fair proportion of their sisters, too* - would have jumped at the chance to fly in what was essentially a slightly stretched V-bomber. And the possibilities for gradual development to supersonic performance are obvious.



Civil V-22
IIRC the chief of aeromedical retrieval services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital once wrote a letter to the editor of a medical journal extolling the virtues of the V-22 for retrieval of sick patients and advising that the helipad on the hospital's roof be strengthened to take the expected AUW of the aircraft. Amusingly, he cited Dale Brown's novel Hammerheads as one of his sources for knowledge of the V-22 (for which it was, one must admit, one long advertisement.) I wish I could find the letter online to confirm my recollection.




* = at least judging by my little daughter, who preferably plays with her brother's dinosaurs, trains etc., while Dolly languishes in the corner most days.

 

[boxkite]

Duncan, thanks for showing us this wonderful collection of display models . Do you have a photograph of the Hawker Siddeley VTOL aircraft (the type designation is too small for identifying) in the red frame?

 

[Overkiller]

Duncan, thanks for showing us this wonderful collection of display models . Do you have a photograph of the Hawker Siddeley VTOL aircraft (the type designation is too small for identifying) in the red frame?

Your wish is my command...

The designation on the model is HS803, this design used stowable, circulation controlled rotors for VTOL operations.

cheers

Duncan

 

[fightingirish]

Martin Winchester posted some great pictures of Wind Tunnel & Manufacturers Models on his Flickr site. B)

• Wind Tunnel & Manufacturers Models
• Avro Models

 

[LowObservable]

It had never occurred to me that the nose spike on the M-Wing SST was the precursor of the Trident D5 missile.