Pneumatic systems

[Rosevidney1]

Talking to an ex-gunnery instructor who flew the Avro Athena he surprised me by saying the pneumatic undercarriage took a full two minutes to retract.
I do not think he was joking.

[Tankertrashnav]

Must admit I've had to google the Athena to find out what the heck it was! I wonder how many others on here have never heard of it.

Great period in our aviation history when new types seemed to appear every week, it seems (many to disappear almost without trace in a very short time).

[Brian Abraham]

Document here says five seconds

armstrong whitworth | flying wing | armstrong siddeley | 1948 | 0963 | Flight Archive (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200963.html?search=Avro%20Athena)

[Rigga]

All depended on the build and wear tollerances in Pumps, Valves and leakages from Pipes, Bags, Seals, etc.

I dont doubt that 2 mins could be experienced.

Thats mainly why Air/Vaccuum systems were replaced by Hyd systems - you can see a Hyd leak...most times!

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

My Dad worked on Athenas at Woodford Flight Sheds before he moved to assembly of the Vulcan 1st prototype. He never really liked working on small aeroplanes and reckoned that the key failing point of the Athena was Mr Dunlop's wonderful pneumatic system that was a constant source of U/S aeroplanes.