Avro Shackleton

The Avro Shackleton was a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft developed by Avro from the Lincoln bomber, with elements of the Tudor airliner, and named after the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. Designated Type 696 at first, it was built in the late 1940s as part of Britain's response to the growth of the Soviet submarine force and became the main type equipping RAF Coastal Command. It entered RAF service in April 1951 for anti-submarine and maritime patrol work, with search and rescue and transport as secondary roles, and used four Rolls-Royce Griffon engines driving contra-rotating propellers. South Africa also bought the type and flew it from 1957 to 1984. Converted MR 2 airframes served as AEW 2 early warning aircraft until 1991, when the Boeing E-3 Sentry replaced them.