  
 Museum’s
Anson Restoration Project
By Colin Ainsworth, Project
Leader
31 Jul 07
Over the past four
weeks Keith Brenson, Peter Campagna, Mike Dandurand, Ernie Killen,
and Bob McElman have been working on installing the tail panels and
the lower part of the fuselage "Belly Panel". The
original tail panels were manufactured out of metal, and over the
years have been damaged. To fit them properly to the aircraft all
the dints and gouges had to be removed. This work is very
time consuming and a lot of time is required to ensure that they fit
properly. Peter Miller and myself have been working on the main
electrical relay panel and it is now ready to be installed in the
aircraft. Once this is done the entire heavy gauge electrical
cables from the starters and generators on both engines can be connected
to the main electrical panel. Next month the restoration
crew hope to start on the wing trailing edges, and to finish
installing the last two aircraft instruments in the pilots’ instrument
panel.
This month's "Anson
Trivia" is the seventh article taken from the book "Avro
Aircraft Since 1908" by A.J. Jackson.
Avro 625A Anson Mks 1 to
X
The all-up weight of the
Anson was steadily increased from 7,342 lb for the prototype in 1935, to
8,000 lb in September 1938 when the crew was increased from three to
four, and to 9,300 lb in 1941 (by which time the bomb-load had been
increased to two 250 lb bombs), finally to 9,850 lb in 1943 for a number
equipped with Bristol B.1 Mk VI turrets as combined navigation and
armament trainers. Engine overheating then led to the fitting of
smooth "Oxford" type cowlings. The Anson Mk X (prototype
NK753), introduced in 1943, was virtually a Mk. I with cabin floor
strengthened to support heavy freight. Some early production aircraft
had full military equipment and the Bristol Turret but the majority were
without such adornment for Nos. 4 and 5 AODU and Air Transport Auxiliary
post D-Day freight runs to the Continent. Many Mk.Xs had
transparent nose caps and smooth engine cowlings, modifications
retrospectively incorporated in a large number of Anson Mk. 1s a
considerable fleet of which flew nearly ten million miles with the ATA
Air Movements Flight, distributing and collecting ferry pilots. Capt
Douglas Fairweather, founder of the Flight was a middle-aged Anson
devote who chain-smoked his way through any weather to get his exhausted
and sleeping loads back to base, often with Service hitch hikers
"strap hanging" in the gangway. He and a nursing sister lost
their lives somewhere in the Irish Sea in Anson N4875 on April 4, 1944.
while trying to reach Prestwick in appalling weather to pick up a
serious hospital case.
After the war surplus
Anson Mk.1s were sold in small numbers to the air forces of Belgium,
Iran, Israel, Norway, The Netherlands, Portugal and Saudi Arabia. The
largest number, 223, were sold to France to equip the Air Navigation and
Bombing School at Cazoux, patrol squadrons in Syria and Equatorial
Africa, the advanced Flying School at Cognac, and the Aeronvale. While
no Anson's were supplied direct to the British Royal Navy, a number were
transferred from the RAF postwar for Air Observer training.
Next month we will continue with
more excerpts from "Avro Aircraft Since 1908" by A.J. Jackson
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