Avro Tudor

The Avro Type 688 Tudor was a British piston-engined airliner and Britain's first pressurised airliner, developed by Avro from the Lincoln bomber, itself a descendant of the Lancaster. Work began in 1943 under Specification 29/43, following recommendations of the Brabazon Committee, and Roy Chadwick combined the Lincoln's wing with a new pressurised fuselage of circular cross-section. The first prototype, G-AGPF, flew on 14 June 1945 and the standard engines were Rolls-Royce Merlin 621s. Customers saw it as little more than a pressurised DC-4 with a dated tailwheel layout, and BOAC rejected the Tudor I in April 1947, so orders were few. Variants included the Tudor 2, six Tudor 5 aircraft for British South American Airways, and the Tudor 8 test aircraft fitted with Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets.