Victory Aircraft Limited was a Canadian manufacturing company that, during

the Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, built mainly British-designed aircraft under licence. It acted as a shadow factory, safe from the reach of German bombers. Initially the major wartime contract to manufacture

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stir ...

heavy bombers was to go to the National Steel Car Ltd. headquartered in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

, utilizing the Malton factory (near today's

Toronto Pearson International Airport Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surr ...

). National Steel Car was already producing

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft' ...

aircraft (Malton 1938-1939) and involved as a subcontractor in the manufacture of

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness b ...

fighters (1939-1943),

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) ...

trainers (Montreal 1941-1945) and

Handley Page Hampden The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden is a British twin-engine medium bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers ...

bombers (Malton and Montreal 1939-1941?). Questions arising as to the company's ability to manage the project led to the government's expropriation of the plant on 4 November 1942 and the setting up of the

Crown Corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

, Victory Aircraft Limited, incorporated under the Department of Munitions and Supply Act, 1940 c.31. J.P. Bickell, one of

C.D. Howe Clarence Decatur Howe, (15 January 1886 – 31 December 1960) was an American-born Canadian engineer, businessman and Liberal Party politician. Howe served as a cabinet minister in the governments of prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie ...

's " dollar-a-year men" headed Victory Aircraft Ltd. as president and chairman of the board.

Wartime production

Although originally designated to produce the

Martin B-26 Marauder The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in t ...

medium bomber, the Malton plant received a contract on 18 September 1941 to build the

Mk X heavy bomber. When the first drawings arrived in January 1942, the complexity of the project seemed daunting. Some 500,000 manufacturing operations were involved in manufacturing over 55,000 separate components that went into a Lancaster (excluding engines and turrets and small items such as rivets, nuts and bolts).

Avro Lancaster X

A Lancaster Mk I (R5727) from

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 ...

Aircraft (UK) was flown across the Atlantic in August 1942, to act as a "pattern" aircraft for production. Differences between the British Lancasters and the Canadian built versions (known as the Mk X) revolved around engines, instruments and radio equipment being manufactured in Canada or the United States instead of England. The

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was late ...

engines were the same design, but manufactured by

Packard Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958. One of the "Th ...

in the United States. A later series Lancaster Mk X replaced the original

Frazer-Nash Frazer Nash was a brand of British sports car manufactured from 1922 first by Frazer Nash Limited founded by engineer Archibald Frazer-Nash. On its financial collapse in 1927 a new company, AFN Limited, was incorporated. Control of AFN passed ...

FN 50 mid-upper turret with a US-made Martin 250CE turret moved to a new location farther back on the upper fuselage due to differences in weight between that unit and the original turret. All major sub-assemblies of the Canadian Lancasters were interchangeable with the British versions so that in the event of damage, spare parts were immediately at hand. Initially, all components were built at Malton except for the bomb doors, flaps, ailerons and elevators, that were produced by Ottawa Car & Aircraft Ltd. Later, more of the parts were subcontracted out with Canadian General Electric Co. Ltd. of Toronto constructing the fuel tanks, tailplane, fins and rudders, while the outer wings were subcontracted to the Fleet Aircraft Limited plant in Fort Erie, Ontario. From the first blueprints arriving to the first test flight took only 16 months, an impressive accomplishment, not lost on Avro (UK) management. The Malton work force climbed from 3,300 (1942) to 9,521 in 1944, most of them initially unskilled workers and about a quarter of them women. Almost exactly a year to the day from when the "pattern" aircraft was flown to Canada, the Canadian prototype, (serial number KB700), rolled off the Victory Aircraft assembly line on 1 August 1943. Named the "

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

Express," much publicity was made of its christening, first flight and its departure (albeit delayed as the prototype was wheeled out missing some of its essential gear and was barely able to fly) to England. Nevertheless, the Avro Lancaster setting off for war was an occasion for which the country could be proud. Eventually, Lancaster production at Victory Aircraft Ltd. reached the impressive mark of one aircraft per day. After being ferried to England and sent to operational squadrons, the Canadian "Lancs" were assigned to

No. 6 Group RCAF No. 6 Group RCAF was a group of Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) heavy bomber squadrons in Europe during the Second World War, between 1942 and 1945. The group operated out of airfields in Yorkshire, England. History No. 6 Group was a Royal Can ...

, the Canadian component of

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

, to complete this "all-Canadian" contribution to the war effort. The Lancaster X was also slated to equip the RCAF bomber squadrons for the British Commonwealth

Tiger Force Tiger Force was the name of a long-range reconnaissance patrol unit of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade (Separate), 101st Airborne Division, which fought in the Vietnam War from November 1965 to November 1967. The unit ...

for the bombing of Japan however the war with Japan ended before the force was sent overseas. The Malton plant went on to build by war's end, a total of 3,629 Avro aircraft: 3,197 Ansons, 430 Mk X Lancasters (including six Lancastrian transport conversions), one Mk XV Lincoln heavy bomber, and a single York transport.

End of Victory Aircraft

Victory Aircraft ceased operations on 11 November 1945. In 1945, the Canadian government sold Victory Aircraft to

Hawker Siddeley Group Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of onl ...

who used it for their subsidiary A.V. Roe Canada Ltd (known as

Avro Canada Avro Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1945 as an aircraft plant and within 13 years became the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 5 ...

Notes

References

* Eggleston, Wilfrid. ''Canada at Work.'' Ottawa: Canada at Work Publishers, 1953. * Floyd, Jim, ''The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner.'' Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1986. . (Includes an extensive background on Victory Aircraft) * Milberry, Larry. ''Aviation in Canada.'' Toronto: CANAV Books, 1979. . * Stewart, Greig. ''Shutting Down the National Dream: A.V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow.'' Toronto: McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, 1991. .

External links