Architect of Wings

Most famously designer of the great Lancaster bomber, Roy Chadwick was one of the most significant personalities in the aviation world in the first half of the twentieth century. His career encompassed both wood-and-fabric biplanes before the Great War and the futuristic delta-winged Vulcan jet bomber. This classic biography by Harald Penrose – himself a significant figure in the development of aviation – tells his fascinating story. Both Roy Chadwick and the author lived through the same contemporary events, so this biography of the great Avro designer not only deals with aircraft evolution but reflects the atmosphere of those days. No sooner was one design under way than Roy Chadwick was imagining the next and the next, totalling some two hundred. They range from initial experience with pre-Great War precursors and the world-famous Avro 504 trainer through a sequence of prototypes including ultra-light aeroplanes, powerful fighters and bombers. In particular the Avro 504 with its 20 variants, the twin-engined Anson and the mighty Lancaster were built in huge numbers. In a swift-moving story Penrose depicts Chadwick’s career through the changing years from the early revelation of flight to his 54th year when he initiated design of the futuristic delta-winged Vulcan, ending with his tragic death in the crash of the Avro Tudor II airliner in 1947.