August 2018August 2018 FLYPAST 25FLYPAST 25CENTENARY ANS N
AN AVRO XIX HAS BEEN GIVEN A NEW MILITARY IDENTITY TO COINCIDE WITH THE
RAF’S CENTENARY COMMEMORATIONS. DARREN HARBAR TELLS ALL.
CENTENARY ANS NCENTENARY ANS NCENTENARY ANS N
N
umerous aircraft are flying
in special markings this year
to celebrate the RAF’s 100th
‘birthday’. A handful have also
been fully repainted to mark this
important anniversary.
Few, though, are likely to be as
eye-catching as the BAE Systems
Heritage Flight’s Avro XIX G-AHKX,
which emerged from RGV Aviation’s
workshop at Gloucestershire Airport
in a spectacular new RAF livery
on May 5.
The twin-engined classic had
been displayed for many years in a
pale blue civilian scheme, wearing
its registration in large white codes
along the fuselage. It now looks very
different and represents Avro Anson
C.19 TX176, a 1946-built former
RAF Coningsby station flight
aircraft that served from November
1957 to October 1964.AVRO NINETEEN
PROTOTYPE
The BAE Systems Heritage Flight
aircraft was built as part of a batch
of 52 Mk.XIXs after World War
Two at Avro’s shadow factory
at Yeadon in Yorkshire and was
sold on to the civil market as an
Avro Nineteen (XIX). It was the
prototype of the Avro Nineteen
Series 2 and was first flown at
Yeadon by Avro pilot Ken Cook on
November 13, 1946.
It was registered to Smiths Aircraft
Instruments as G-AHKX and
delivered in January 1947, being put
to work as a communications and
instrument development platform.
In August 1960 it looked as if Kilo-
X-Ray was about to leave the country
when its registration was cancelled,
and it was reported to be heading
for Canada. However, the deliverywas never made and G-AHKX was
placed back on the UK register in
March 1961, when it was taken
on charge by Meridian Airmaps at
Shoreham, West Sussex.
Having passed through the
hands of several different owners
in the 1960s, the Avro XIX ended
up with Kemps Aerial Surveys
Aircraft Division. Its Certificate
of Airworthiness had expired by
April 1973, and it was offered for
sale. Sir William Roberts acquired
the aircraft for his rapidly growing
Strathallan Aircraft Collection
in Scotland.LONG JOURNEY
BACK TO FLIGHT
While based at former Avro sites
at Woodford and Chadderton
in Greater Manchester, director
Charles Masefield considered