Britain's First Pressurized Airliner.

On June 14th, 1945, the Avro Type 688 'Tudor' flew for the first time, taking off from Ringway Airport in Manchester. The aircraft made history as it became the first pressurized civil aircraft produced in the United Kingdom. However, it was ultimately met with limited commercial success, for various reasons.

Based on the company's existing Second World War 'Lincoln' bomber, the Avro Tudor was often viewed by its operators as a pressurized answer to the Douglas DC-4. Only a handful of airlines flew the type.

The aircraft was initially designed to be deployed on North Atlantic services, and BOAC became the aircraft's first customer. Powered by four Rolls-Royce piston engines, the Tudor required a crew of two pilots, a flight engineer, a radio operator, and a navigator. In terms of capacity, the Tudor I could seat 24 passengers.

With a length of 24.23m, a wingspan of 36.58m, and a height of 6.71m, 12 people could fit in the cabin when it was configured for sleeper services. It could cruise up to 483km/h at 6858m and reach a range of 6598km with a maximum payload.

However, BOAC shared that it was not happy with the Avro 688 Tudor I after trial runs. The airline noted poor buffeting that became notable above approach speed. It subsequently requested numerous modifications to the aircraft, which delayed its production and soured BOAC's relationship with Avro.

Fuel consumption was such an issue that BOAC said that 'they would find difficulty in using the aircraft on the Atlantic route. The Trans-Atlantic payload was only 12 passengers (all passengers had the sleeping berths).

The Tudor II was created to boost seat numbers. It was designed to have 60 seats. At the time of its first flight in March 1946, this made it Britain's largest airliner. However, only 3 airplanes in passenger configuration were produced.

The Tudors flew to South America, Cuba via Lisbon, the Azores, Bermuda and Nassau.

There were several other Tudor's variants designed, including a jet-engine edition. In total, 38 Avro Tudor aircrafts were built between 1945 and 1949.

Overall, the Avro Tudor may have been beaten by the likes of the Boeing 307 Stratoliner. However, the plane was undoubtedly a pioneer in the British aviation scene during a critical post-war period.