The Avro 706 Ashton was a British prototype jet

airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ai ...

made by

Avro AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broa ...

during the 1950s. Although it flew nearly a year after the

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four d ...

, it represented an experimental programme and was never intended for commercial use.

Design and development

The Avro 689 Tudor 9 was based on the Avro 689 Tudor II piston-engined airliner using experience on work on the

Rolls-Royce Nene The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent"Rolls-Royce Aero Engines" Bill Gunston, Patrick Stephens Limited 1989, , p.111 ...

jet-powered experimental variant, the Tudor 8, which made its first flight on 6 September 1948. The Avro Type 689 Tudor 9, later renamed the Avro 706 Ashton, was a four-jet-engined research aeroplane powered by

engines paired in wing nacelles. Avro Ashton 1 at Woodford 1959

Six were built using the Tudor airframe, beginning with the conversion of Tudor I initially powered by Nene 5 engines. The Ashtons that followed incorporated the upgraded Nene 6 and featured an enlarged, "square-shaped" tail fin and tricycle landing gear replacing the original "taildragger" configuration. The engines were tightly grouped in two nacelles that were faired neatly into the wing but also extended below in streamlined pods. The four-engine arrangement compensated for the low thrust of the early jet engines and greatly reduced asymmetric effects in an "engine-out" scenario. The crew was composed of a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer and radio operator clustered together in the cockpit and front compartment of the Ashton. A larger complement could be carried in the spacious fuselage when warranted.

Operational history

Production was completed rapidly through modifications of surplus Tudor 2 airframes with a single example each of the Ashton 1 (''WB490''), Ashton 2 (''WB491''), Ashton 4 (''WB494'') and three Ashton 3s (''WB492'', ''WB493'' and ''WE670''), all built by Avro at Woodford. Test flights began in 1950 with evaluations of jet operations, navigation and at least one Ashton (Mk 4) tested bombing equipment with two streamlined underwing bomb containers fitted.Winchester 2005, p. 66. Despite being one of the first jet-engined air transports, the Ashton was engaged in primarily experimental work and was soon eclipsed in technology by the first of the full-scale production airliners, the

. Ashton ''WB491'' was modified with an under-fuselage mounting for testing turbine engines. It was used by

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

for trials with the Conway and Avon.

Bristol Siddeley Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd (BSEL) was a British aero engine manufacturer. The company was formed in 1959 by a merger of Bristol Aero-Engines Limited and Armstrong Siddeley Motors Limited. In 1961 the company was expanded by the purchase of t ...

used Ashton ''WB493'' as a testbed for its

Olympus Olympus or Olympos ( grc, Ὄλυμπος, link=no) may refer to: Mountains In antiquity Greece * Mount Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology * Mount Olympus (Lesvos), located in Le ...

turbojet. The aircraft was fitted with two Olympus engines under the wings, outboard of the Nenes. This aircraft had a starring role in the 1960 British movie '' Cone of Silence'', masquerading as the "Atlas Phoenix". Later the same aircraft was used as a test bed for the

Bristol Siddeley Orpheus The Bristol Siddeley Orpheus was a single-spool turbojet developed by Bristol Siddeley for various light fighter/trainer applications such as the Folland Gnat and the Fiat G.91. Later, the Orpheus formed the core of the first Bristol Pegasus ...

, its port engine having been upgraded to the Orpheus features for trials. AvroAshton-fuselage

Survivor

A piece of the fuselage of the Ashton 2 (''WB491'') is preserved at the

Newark Air Museum Newark Air Museum is an air museum located on a former Royal Air Force station at Winthorpe, near Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England. The museum contains a variety of aircraft. History The airfield was known as RAF Winthorpe during ...

, Winthorpe, UK.

Specifications (Avro Ashton)

Notable appearances in media

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Chorlton, Martyn. ''Avro Ashton Database''. Kelsey Publishing: Aeroplane Monthly, 2013. * Jackson, A.J. ''Avro Aircraft since 1908''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 2000 (revised edition). . * Taylor, John W.R. ''Jane's Pocket Book of Research and Experimental Aircraft'', London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd, 1976. . * Winchester, Jim.'' X-Planes and Prototypes''. London: Amber Books Ltd., 2005. .

External links

Avro Ashton
– British Aircraft Directory

{{Avro Lancaster family Ashton 1950s British airliners 1950s British experimental aircraft Quadjets Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1950