AVRO 707C Journey to the AVRO Heritage Museum at Woodford

WZ744 was one of two 707s assembled at Avro's Repair Factory at Bracebridge Heath, just south of Lincoln. WZ736 was first flown from nearby RAF Waddington on 20th February 1953 and WZ744 followed on 1st July 1953. Neither aircraft was directly involved in the Vulcan development programme and spent their time involved in general research with the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough and Bedford. WZ736 was involved in auto-throttle development trials until withdrawn in 1964 and WZ744 flew nearly 200 hours in the development of fly-by-wire electrically signalled hydraulic flying controls. WZ736 struck off charge at Farnborough on 9th May 1962 and used as a source of spares for WZ744. WZ744 was the first aircraft of its kind to be fitted with a side stick controller and it was still flying in September 1966, when it achieved its full airframe time and entered enforced retirement.
Although the Avro 707 family of research aircraft did not contribute significantly to the Vulcan programme they did give the British aircraft designers early confidence in the general handling characteristics of the delta-wing (Avro were at the time world leaders). This lead to its adoption on other aircraft types (several of which were cancelled in the 1957 White Paper), and some of the systems tested found a direct application on other military aircraft programmes.
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[@andyh1965]

Top job Neil 👍

[@musson13]

I'm a Lincoln lad and always interested in aviation but had absolutely no knowledge of the Avro repair facility up at Bracebridge. I would have been 7 years old at the time and was lulled to sleep with the rumble of the Vulcans kept in 24 hour rediness up at Waddington.