Avro Shackleton

The Avro Shackleton is a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) which was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). It was developed by Avro from their Lincoln bomber, which itself had been a development of the famous wartime Lancaster bomber. The Shackleton was developed during the late 1940s as part of Britain's military response to the rapid expansion of the Soviet Navy, in particular its submarine force. Produced as the primary type equipping RAF Coastal Command, the Type 696 as it was initially designated, incorporated major elements of the Lincoln, as well as the Avro Tudor airliner, and was furnished with an extensive electronics suite in order to perform the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission, along with much-improved crew facilities due to the long mission times involved in patrol work. The type was named Shackleton, after the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The Shackleton entered operational service with the RAF in April 1951 and was used primarily in the ASW and MPA roles, but it was also frequently deployed as an aerial search and rescue (SAR) platform and for performing several other secondary roles such as mail delivery and as an ad-hoc cargo and troop-transport aircraft. In addition to its service with the RAF, South Africa also procured the Shackleton to equip the SAAF. In South African service, the type was operated in the maritime patrol capacity between 1957 and 1984. During March 1971, a number of SAAF Shackletons were used during the SS Wafra oil spill, intentionally sinking the stricken oil tanker using depth charges to prevent further ecological contamination. During the 1970s, the Shackleton was replaced in the maritime patrol role by the jet-powered Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, however a small number of the RAF's existing Shackletons received extensive modifications in order...