Soon after the end of World War II, the Royal Air Force issued a requirement for a new four-engine long range maritime patrol plane to replace its American-made Liberators and Fortresses. The AVRO company responded with a new design based on the Lincoln bomber. The aircraft used the Lincoln’s wings and landing gear as well as parts from the earlier Lancaster bomber but with a shorter fuselage and higher-powered Rolls-Royce Griffon engines driving six-blade contra-rotating propellers. The new design was named Shackleton after the famous British explorer and entered service in February 1951. Beginning in 1971, a dozen Shackleton MR.2s were modified into Airborne Early Warning aircraft by the addition of radar systems and domes removed from the Fairey Gannet. These aircraft served with the RAF until 1991 when the last of them were retired.
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