Avro York C.1 (TS798)  [@ RAF Cosford]

In 1941, Avro designer Roy Chadwick began to sketch out a long-range transport aircraft based on the Lancaster. The result became the Avro Type 685 York and the prototype flew on 5^th July 1942. Incorporating the wings, tail, undercarriage and engines of the Lancaster bomber, the York was to prove a useful military and civilian transport aircraft in war and peace. The Avro York was initially produced only in small numbers, but it went into mass production in 1944 and 257 were built, approximately 50 of which were civil transports. The York equipped nine squadrons of RAF Transport Command and was the mainstay of the RAF contribution to the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49. The Handley Page Hastings replaced it in the early 1950s.

Yorks were used by a number of British and Commonwealth airlines and charter companies during the 1940s and 1950s. For example, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Avro York aircraft took over the Shorts Empire Class flying boat routes from Cairo to Durban in late 1946. British South American Airways (BSAA) was also an operator of Avro York aircraft on their routes to South America. The York performed airliner services in the same era as the Boeing Stratocruiser, Convair 240 & 340 and the Douglas DC-6. It seated 24 passengers and had 4 Rolls Royce Merlin engines which provided a 210 mph cruising speed. It flew into the late 1960s with Dan-Air London.

TS798 was built for the RAF in October 1945 but surplus to RAF requirements it entered civil use with BOAC. In the photograph it is in the livery of the first operational York delivered to the RAF serving with 24 Squadron as a VIP flight.