From the Inside Cover

The Avro Type 679 Manchester is considered to be one of the failures of British military aviation history and certainly the period of time it spent in service with Bomber Command was not particularly happy.

I found the service career of this aircraft to be particularly interesting. The Manchester was designed in 1936 as a heavy bomber capable of carrying 8000lbs of either bombs or torpedoes using 2 Rolls Royce Vulture II liquid cooled engines with two-speed superchargers. It was designed around the same time as the Stirling and Halifax heavy bombers. The Stirling had a short operational career but the Halifax remained in service throughout WW2. The Manchester suffered from poor engine performance due to troubles with the Rolls Royce Vulture II. But the aircraft also suffered from poor directional stability hence the addition of the central fin to the fuselage to augment the twin tails. The Avro Manchester started its service career in November 1940, equipping No. 207 Squadron at Waddington. The Manchester eventually equipped Squadron Nos. 49, 50, 61, 83, 97, and 106. Rolls Royce abandoned the Vulture engine in 1941 and even though alternate engine proposals were made, production of the Avro Manchester also ceased altogether. A total of 200 aircraft were produced, but the Manchester airframe was completely sound and was used for the very successful Lancaster.

Review

These books are great reference materials for modelers! They start with a complete history of the subject aircraft, through test flying, design changes in detail, trials for battle, and service career. This Warpaint book on the Avro Manchester is only 36 pages but includes approximately 62 rare black and white wartime photos, 4 pages of scale plans, 11 pages of full color drawings by Richard J. Caruana (a well know aircraft artist), 8 original design drawings, a list of Avro Manchester Squadrons detailing Units and Representative Aircraft, Avro Manchester Production List for Mks and numbers of aircraft produced, and a list of Kit Manufacturers including Decals and Accessories. Everything you need when doing research on your chosen aircraft build!

Warpaint Policy

Designed with both the aircraft enthusiast and the model maker in mind, the publishers of the Warpaint series try to establish as near as possible a comprehensive and accurate account of a single aircraft type within one set of covers. Each book sets standards in the quality of the history and the accuracy of the drawings both in colour side and plan view and the 1:72nd scale plans that appear in each one.

My thanks to War Paint Books and IPMS USA for the opportunity to review this great book.