Avro York
| Type 685 York | |
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| LV633 Ascalon, Churchill's personal aircraft. | |
| Role | Transport |
| Manufacturer | Avro |
| Designer | Roy Chadwick |
| First flight | 5 July 1942 |
| Introduction | 1944 |
| Retired | 1964 |
| Status | Two examples on display |
| Primary users |
Royal Air Force BOAC British South American Airways Skyways Ltd |
| Produced | 1943–1949 |
| Number built | 259 (including prototypes) |
| Developed from | Avro Lancaster |
 Images of Yorks in service
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Footage of Yorks during Operation Vittles, 1948
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News report on the crash of a York, 1956
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The Avro York was a British transport aircraft developed by Avro during the Second World War. The design was derived from the famed Avro Lancaster heavy bomber that was being produced at the time for the Royal Air Force (RAF); several sections of the York and Lancaster were identical. Due to priority being placed on the Lancaster instead, production of the York proceeded at a slow pace until 1944, after which a higher priority was placed upon transport aircraft.
The York saw service in both military and civilian roles with various operators between 1943 and 1964. In civilian service, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the most prolific user of the type. In military service, large numbers of Yorks were used during the high-profile air-supply missions during the Berlin Blockade 1948–49. Notably, a number of the type were used as air transports of heads of state and government; VIPs who flew on Yorks included British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French General Charles de Gaulle, Indian Governor-General Lord Mountbatten and South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts.
During 1941, Avro elected to begin development of a new civil-orientated transport aircraft. In the midst of an uncertain stage of the Second World War, Britain's aircraft industry was preoccupied by urgent wartime demands not only to produce military aircraft, but to design increasingly capable models as well, the company's decision to embark on this venture was considered to be ambitious, especially as the development project operated with no official backing early on. The project may have been influenced by a shortage of transport aircraft, as well as by the formation of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1940 to run all of the nation's overseas civil air routes; however, according to aviation author Donald Hannah, there was little incentive or materials available for the construction of transport aircraft, and that it was impossible to predict when the war would end and thus when large-scale demand for civil aircraft would return.
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Wikipedia