RON DUPAS COLLECTION
No. 896. Avro 685 York C.Mk.I (CF-HAS)
Photographed on Highway 10 North of The Pas, Manitoba, Canada, July 1968, by Ron Dupas

Avro 685 York C.Mk.I

09/18/2003. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Avro's chief designer, Roy Chadwick, made a redesign of the Lancaster bomber first flown in January of 1941. The York first prototype (LV626) was flown from Ringway on July 5, 1942, only 5 months after Chadwick's drawing was given to the experimental department. Wing, tail, engines and landing gear were of the Lancaster, the fuselage was a completely new design. The type was powered by four 1,620 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin T.24 twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled V-engines.

Four prototypes were built. Number 3 (LV633 named Ascalon) became Winston Churchill's personal flying conference room, a central fin was added and it had fewer square windows compared to long row of circular windows on all other aircraft. The central fin became standard on all 254 production York C. Mk.Is. The first was converted late 1943 to the only C. Mk.II produced, with Bristol Hercules IV radials and a central fin.

The transport was fitted for passenger, freight, or combined duties. In 1943 the production started and the bulk (208) went to the RAF, although many of these ended in civil service. The last aircraft was completed in April 1948, totaling 258 aircraft, including the 4 prototypes.

Created October 22, 2001