Avro Wells

[tigercat]

Introducing the Avro Wells RNLI flying crane

[Rheged]

This sounds most  interesting; pictures and backstory please.......I'm all agog!  I assume that the orange and prussian blue paint will be in use in the near future.   Dare I ask if it will be self-righting like most other RNLI craft?

[tigercat]

it has been inspired by the  Kamov Ka-22 and the discovery of a LCVP in my stash.

more details once i have dreamt them up and I have picked up some appropriate helicopter bits at Hendon at the Weekend.

[tigercat]

A collaboration between 2 visionnaries resulted in the creation of the Avro Wells Heinrich Focke and Roy Chadwick.  After the Second World War, from 1945 to 1948, Focke worked in France as a prisoner of war. From 1948 he worked as a consulting engineer helicopter for the British Ministry of Aviation where he met Roy Chadwick
who had narrowly escaped death in August 1947 when a prototype Tudor on which he was supposed to be on had crashed. Roy had come down with a nasty case of flu in mid July which had left him bed ridden and therefore unable to make the flight.

Seeing a niche in the  market they designed the Avro Wells a flying crane able to carry awkward loads which would not fit in a conventional aircraft as well as help rebuild a Europe whose road, river and rail networks had been devestated by 6 years of war as well as providing a workhorse for the needs of the armed services.



A flight of 6 Avro Wells were obtained by the RNLI in 1957  to replace their fleet of ageing  Sunderlands and Lancasters in the rapid response airborne lifeboat fleet.

A total of 65 Lancaster B.Is and B.VIIs were overhauled by Avro and delivered to the Aeronavale (France) and the RNLI  during 1952/53. These were flown until the mid-1960s by four squadrons in France and New Caledonia in the maritime reconnaissance and search-and-rescue roles.  so the Avro Wells were a natural fit as their many similarities made them familar to the RNLI maintenance personnel

The Wells proved able to  hover above the scene of an accident where previous RNLI  fixed-wing aircraft were forced to  circle, or for seaplanes, land and taxi toward the accident. They  could also save those stranded among rocks and reefs, where seaplanes were unable to go.