Museum of Science and Industry

From flimsy early aircraft to the iconic Lancaster and the Vulcan nuclear bomber, Manchester’s pioneering role in aircraft production will be shown in a new photography display launched at MOSI this week, as part of the Easter programme of free events (4-19 April).

The display features archive photographs from the former Avro factories, which were based in Manchester and started by A.V. Roe, the first British person to fly in an all-British aeroplane – the Triplane – in 1909. It is held as part of MOSI’s ‘Science of Flight’ events during Easter, which include a range of demonstrations, workshops and hands-on activities for all the family, on the theme of flight.

From work on some of the earliest successful aeroplanes in 1912, to mass production of Lancasters; the manufacture and assembly of fuselages, nose sections and wings, to engineers in the drawing offices, and the modern-day Woodford factory, the photo display is a fascinating insight into the vast Avro operation and the thousands of Manchester men and women who worked there.

Nick Forder, Air & Space Curator at MOSI said: “In a little over 30 years aeroplane manufacture in Manchester expanded from the basement of a Ancoats mill, where aeroplanes had to be taken to pieces to get them through the door, to purpose-built factories producing 150 Lancasters every month. Ten years after that massive jigs and machine tools were needed to produce the Vulcan, an aeroplane with a wingspan slightly longer than AV Roe’s first flight. I am grateful to the Avro Heritage centre for allowing MOSI to illustrate one more aspect of the last 100 years of Manchester innovation.”

Roe set up his first factory in 1910 at Brownsfield Mill in Ancoats, where he started production of some of the earliest British planes – the world’s first cabin monoplane Avro Type D and the military Type 500. Later he moved Avro operations to Miles Platting and subsequently set up operations in Newton Heath, Woodford, Chadderton, Hamble and Langar. The Woodford and Chadderton factories remain part of BAE Systems today. In May 1943 Avro employed nearly 20,000 people making Lancasters, nearly 8,000 of which were women. These were supported by another 15,000 workers, half of which were women. Each Lancaster bomber took 30,000 worker hours to complete.

MOSI is holding a series of events throughout 2009 to celebrate Roe’s historic achievement – a first flight of approximately 30 metres. During ‘Science of Flight’ visitors will get a chance to discover how aeroplanes fly; make and fly their own paper planes and parachutes; watch a real-life demonstration of birds of prey in flight; train to be a secret agent and learn about the achievements of some of Manchester’s most important heroes and heroines of flight.

MOSI has a replica of Roe’s famous 1909 Triplane in the Air and Space Hall and a team of MOSI volunteers have built another replica Triplane which they will attempt to fly it later this year. MOSI has also launched a major fundraising campaign to renovate its Air and Space Hall this year.

For more information or images please call Sarah Roe on 0161 606 0176 m: 07847 372647 or Diane Inglis on Tel: 0161 606 0173.

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