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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0076.PDF
FLIGHT. JANUARY 13, 1938. QUARTER of a' Leading lights in the Avro concern to-day : Mr. R. H. Dobson (left), generalmanager, and Mr. Roy Chadwick, chief designer. A portrait of Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe, the pioneer pilot and constructor, whose name the firm bearsbut who is no longer actively connected with it, appears on page 36a, in an article which he himself has written. ONE need make no apology for applying the cliche'' household word'' to tne name of the aeroplaneswith which this article is concerned. "Avro" is one of the very few aircraft names well known to the general public outside the movement. For the last twenty years John Citizen and Mrs. Citizen have been apt to call any big aeroplane a " Handley Page " ; and in the same way they have shown a tendency to say, " 1 think it's an Avro" when any smaller one has passed overhead—at any rate, when they were certain it was really not small enough to merit the description of "Moth." And, of course, in tens of thousands of cases it has been an Avro that has given Mr. and Mrs. John C. their first taste of aviation. Even those who have never flown again recall ihe thrill of trepidation, curiosity, eagerness, or whatever emotion visited them as they clambered up the slipstream-blasted ladder to the tandem-seated passenger cockpit of a "504." Thus, when the makers of that '' 504 '' (and of its fore- bears and descendants) proudly achieve a quarter-century of construction, as they do this week, with another five years of historic experimental work thrown in for good measure at the beginning, it is fitting that we should do them honour by recalling some of the mile- stones in those twenty-five years. The beginnings of the firm of A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd., were in the year 1907, when a young man by the name of A. V. Roe, now Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe, followed up the construction of models by building a full-sized machine. The romance of the early days of experiment which culminated in the formation of the com- pany by A. V. Roe and his brother, H. V., is re- called by Sir Alliott him- self in an article specially written for Flight (pages 36a-36d), so this review of Avro history may fittingly begin at the date on which the firm was put on its present basis. That date was January 11, 1913, and at that time the T3rpe 500, with 50 h.p. Gnome rotary engine, had proved very successful. In fact, the 500 (illustrated on page 36c) would not look so very much out of the picture to-day. It laid the foundation for the 504, which was to become the most famous aeroplane in the world, and the designs for which were already under weigh when the company was reconstructed. By May of 1913 the first 504 had been finished and tested; it made its first public appearance at Hendon one Saturday, when everyone marvelled at its amazing speed range (actu- ally about 90 to 35 m.p.h.) and generally attractive appearance. It had been flown over from Brooklands by Raynham, and several of the Hendon pilots were privi- leged to fly it. They were unanimous in their praise of its fine qualities, but nobody could then have foreseen that, with various modifications and amendments, it was destined to be built in thousands. Compared with the 500, the first 504 had a fuselage of better streamline shape, curved side fairings and decking having been added to the rectangular-section main fuselage structure. A Gnome engine of 80 h.p. had been substituted for the 50 h.p. Gnome of the 500. The Famous "504" The central skid which had been a familiar feature of the 500 was retained, but instead of using a leaf-spring axle the 504 had telescopic struts with rubber-cord shock absorbers enclosed in streamline fairings. The leaf-spring axle of the 500 had always been very "squashy," and something of the same quality was retained in the 504, which may have partly accounted for its popularity for school work. Other features which appealed were the pro- nounced stagger and the long, slim fuselage. SOME HISTORIC AVRO TYPES
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