Avro 652

The Avro Anson enjoyed one of the longest production runs of any British aircraft, this status being maintained from 1934 until 15th May 1952 when the last Anson T.21 completed its acceptance trials. Its origin lay in an Imperial Airways specification, sent to A.V.Roe in April 1933, which required that the resulting aircraft should be capable of transporting four passengers over 420 mile sectors at a cruising speed in excess of 130 mph. Other requirements were that the stalling speed should not exceed 60 mph and that the machine should be capable of maintaining 2,000 ft on one engine.

In August 1933, a design team headed by Roy Chadwick produced a study, bearing the designation Avro 652, for a low-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear, to be powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah V engines, and with a design gross weight of 6,500 lb. A change in the Imperial Airways specification to enable the aircraft to fly the Karachi-Bombay Colombo night mail service resulted in modifications which raised the gross weight to 7,650 lb.

An order for two Avro 652s was placed in April 1934, and the first flew on 7th January 1935. Type certification was awarded in March, and these two aircraft were delivered to Imperial Airways at Croydon on 11th March, to remain in service until sold to Air Service Training Ltd in 1938 for use as navigation trainers.

Power Plant: Two 270 h.p. Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah V
Span: 56 ft 6 in
Length: 42 ft 3 in
Height: 13 ft 1 in
Weight (All-Up): 7,400 lb
Max Speed: 195 m.p.h.
Cruise: 165 m.p.h.
Range: 790 miles
Crew: 2
Passengers: 4