Avro Anson Mk 1 W2472

Warbirds Online recently travelled to RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland to look up an old favourite restoration of ours, Avro Anson Mk 1, W2472. Regular readers will recall our news article dated 1 July, 2013, New Avro Anson for Amberley, when the wreck arrived at RAAF Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre for restoration in the queue of projects undergoing rebuild. Since that time great progress has been made on this great old lady of the skies and she is well on the way to a magnificent rebuild to static display condition.

At the time of our recent visit we were surprised by the fantastic progress made on this complex rebuild. As we reported previously the woodwork structure of the aircraft has long since disappeared however nearly all of the metal components were in great restorable condition including the 2 X  Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah IX 7-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 335 hp (250 kW) each which have now been refurbished. All of the structural metal components and the undercarriage have been restored and assembled and the airframe is now sitting on its wheels with a lot of the woodwork having been remade and fitted including the empennage.

The engine nacelles have also had their internals rebuilt and the internal controls have commenced restoration with the control column and centre console having been refitted. The replica .303 Browning machine gun has been fitted to the forward fuselage. The Avro Anson will also be fitted with 1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine gun in a dorsal turret which will be mounted in the rear fuselage. Over the next few months work will progress to finish the internal fit out of the airframe and fit all of the wooden stringers etc. to allow for the “bagging” of the fuselage in its fabric covering.

Work will also proceed on finishing the center section of the wings and the other external panels. It is hoped to complete the work on all of the above this year, the RAAF’s Centenary year. The nearly completed aircraft will then go on display in the Transport hangar of the RAAF Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre. Whilst everyone is aware of the dimensions of the Anson it is only when actually confronted with the aircraft in situ that the sheer size of the airframe sinks in – this is a sizable aircraft.

Work will then commence of the construction and fitting of the wooden outer wing panels. This will then complete this magnificent restoration. Mk 1 Anson’s are quite rare now and this will be a significant addition to the RAAF Historical Collection.

Warbirds Online will continue to monitor progress on this Anson as it moves towards completion. We would like to thank AIR CDRE John Meier and SQNLDR Paul Ashby of RAAF History and Heritage Branch for facilitating this article.

© John Parker 2021