Roy Chadwick, designer of the Avro Lancaster

Roy Chadwick, designer of the AVRO Lancaster and described as one of the two or three top designers of the 20th century, was born in England, at Farnworth near Widnes, Lancashire. He was the fifth generation of engineers in his father’s family. When he was fourteen, Roy Chadwick entered the British Westinghouse Drawing office in 1907; he also began studying at the Manchester College of Technology, at night, after work.

In 1909, Alliot Verdon-Roe, England’s pioneer airplane constructor and aviator opened his own company, A.V. Roe & Company Ltd. As his apprenticeship drew to a close at Westinghouse in December 1911, Roy Chadwick joined the firm, and A.V. Roe engaged him as his personal assistant.

All the 500 Avro series of airplanes, including the AVRO 504 of W.W.I passed through his hands, in the design stage. Roy Chadwick soon became head of the design team, and Chief Designer in 1918. He designed the Pike, the W.W.I Manchester, and the giant Aldershot, the world’s biggest single-engine bomber. Many variants of the plane followed. Also, many civil and military aircraft flowed from his drawing board. He designed the world’s first true light aircraft, the AVRO Baby, in 1919.

The 1920’s and early 1930’s saw Chadwick design such airplanes as the AVRO Avian and Tutor. The Tutor was a trainer used by the Royal Air Force to train pilots for WWII. In 1933 the AVRO 18, a welded steel tube, fabric-covered 16-seat plane, was soon converted for the RAF into the AVRO Anson, a light bomber and transport plane. Over 11,000 were built. Many bomber crews were trained on Ansons in Canada. Roy Chadwick received an Air Ministry specification in 1937 for a long-range, all metal bomber of advanced conception, powered by two Rolls Royce Vulture engines.

Chadwick’s intuitive, forward thinking ensured that a huge bomb bay, capable of holding ten tons of bombs and mines, in any combination, was part of the design. Also, that the fuselage was made in five separate sections, for manufacture at different factories and for ease of assembly at Woodford, AVRO’s giant assembly works in Cheshire. The machine was named the Manchester, and the prototype L7246 made its initial flight in July 1939, with 207 Squadron receiving Manchesters in November 1940.

Immediately, it was obvious that the Vulture engines were inadequate, and Roy Chadwick, who had always wanted the Rolls Royce Merlin engines, and who had designed a four- engine version of the Manchester, showed the Air Ministry how he could lengthen the Manchester wing and install four Merlin engines. This was agreed, and the Lancaster was born.

The conversion was carried out between November 1940 and January 1941, and right away it was evident that the Lancaster bomber was a highly successful airplane. Production followed rapidly, and AVRO had seven factories and 100 sub-contractors building Lancasters, thus employing 40, 000 persons. In the RAF, 35 squadrons were equipped with Lancasters, which could fly higher and penetrate deeper into enemy territory than any other contemporary machine and which could carry the heaviest loads.

There were over 200 draughtsmen and tracers in Roy Chadwick’s drawing office. Every week, he would go around the office, and look at the work of each draughtsman. He could spot a mistake immediately and correct it. During the war he designed far into the night on the myriad modifications incorporated into the Lancaster for various operations, including the Dam Busters raid in 1943.

Other aircraft designed by Chadwick include the Shackleton, York, Tudor and Lincoln. He had left, in the hands of the Air Ministry, his last brilliant conception: the giant Delta Wing Bomber, the Avro Vulcan, a front line RAF plane for over thirty years.

In 1944, Manchester University made him an Honorary Master of Science, and the College made him an Associate in 1946. Roy Chadwick met his untimely death on Saturday, August 23 1947 on a test flight of the AVRO Tudor II. An overnight servicing error resulted in the aircraft losing control and crashing soon after takeoff.