The Avro 707 was a British experimental aircraft built to test the delta wing design for the Avro 698 jet bomber (later to become the Vulcan), and was effectively a one-third scaled-down version of that aircraft.

The prototypes were ordered by the Ministry to specification E.15/48. The aircraft were produced cheaply and quickly using components from other aircraft. Five prototypes were built in the end. Only the first three produced provided useful information for the Vulcan project, the last two flying too late to be of much relevance.

The first prototype, the Avro 707, crashed on 30 September 1949.[1] Consequently the second prototype was converted during building with the pointed nose planned for the 707A to become the 707B. The B was given the same dorsal engine intakes as the 707. The B would eventually end up as spares for the others. The next one to fly was the 707A, a faithful copy of the Type 698's wingform including engine intakes, and intended for high speed testing. In 1956 it was transferred to Australia where it served until 1967 when sold off to a local resident. The next aircraft were ordered to E.10/49 in November 1951. These were to be a second 707A and two of a side by side cockpit version - the 707C. The 707Cs would be used to give pilots experience but the second 707C was cancelled. These two flew in 1953 by which point the Vulcan prototype was already flying.

The Avro 707 made its final public appearance at the Farnborough Air Show; the four surviving examples of the aircraft flying alongside two Vulcan prototypes.

Two examples of the Avro 707C two-seat variant survive. One is located at the RAF Museum, Cosford near Wolverhampton, the other at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. A single example of the 707A variant survives, at the RAAF Museum in Point Cook, Victoria.

As the name makes the picture, this kit comes in all resin, which means one have to take care about those very fine landing gear parts. All parts are very fine detailed, so there is much to count for all you rivet counters out there, never mind! But this should paint he picture of the parts, as you can count any rivet there.

The canopy is VAC formed. To see what comes in the box, visit the preview.

The constructions starts with the same procedure as every time; washing the parts. After this the flash around the parts was removed. This was quite simple on my example and went on smooth. As I don’t want to sand a lot when using resin, I always use a hot needle to do this. You then have the smell of melting resin but not all the dust.

The instructions on how to deal with all those 34 parts are easy to understand and I just followed them. I really can’t say that much on the construction here, cause my example just went together – the first time this happened to me with a resin kit.

The only thing I’ve changed, I replaced the pitot tube with a needle.

And of course , when the kit is easy to build, well then the “me” factor takes part and I managed to throw the kit off the bench two times.

The cockpit was painted black with some light dry brushing of light gray. This was it, because if you choose the canopy being closed, like me, you can’t see that much of the cockpit then.

The VAC formed cockpit, it’s only one, separated very easily and went on smooth after some sanding here and there. But I have to say, to offer a second one wouldn’t be that much of costs and could make the life of the modeler a little easier.

After a complete washing, masking and light sanding the it got a base of Createx Black Base (as always). This was then polished and a coat of Humbrol flat red was sprayed on top.

The landing gear bays were painted medium gray, as the instruction stated. Some minor washing was done too, but not that much, as this bird never get very dirty I guess.

The decals offered by the kit also went on without any complains, so again I can’t tell that much here.

In the end two coats of Future went on it – and finished.

I like the look of the baby Vulcan and in Red it is an eye catcher among all those other silver birds I have around.

Most of all resin kits are not that cheep and this is not an exception here, so why to spend all that money. Well, if you, like me, are going for the seldom seen planes, or want to present it near the Airfix Vulcan, then you don’t have that much of a choice. If you always wanted to do a resin kit I could recommend this one based on the experience I made with this boxing. But keep in mind, all resin kits are short run kits, so the next boxing could differ much.

To all others, I hope you like the pictures but you most probably won’t miss it.

Internet (Google for Avro 707) and Wikipedia

Martin Pohl

April 2009

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