FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0078.PDF
FLIGHT. JANUARY 13, 1938. The modern successor of the 504 :Three Avro Tutors from the Central Flying School in forma-tion, with the leader flying in- verted. (Fligh' photograph.) •' MMS&** later became known as the '' park bench." Used, we believe, for the first time, it was a small auxiliary aerofoil, carried on two brackets from the top of the aileron, placed above and slightly ahead of the hinge line. When the war ended there were large numbers of 504K aeroplanes, and when pilots began to be demobilised A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd., engaged many and sent them to seaside resorts with these machines, modified to carry two passengers. It is recalled that many thousands of passengers were carried by these joy-ride pilots. The firm may be said to have introduced the modern light aeroplane in that it produced, early in 1919, the Avro Popular, which was afterwards renamed the Avro Baby. With the identical Green engine of 35 h.p. which A. V. Roe had used in one of his 1910 triplanes, this machine was very successful. That it was more than a toy was proved by the remarkable flight made by Bert Hinkler in 1920, when he flew from Croydon to Turin non-stop in 9^ hours. In. the ultra-light class also, A. V. Roe and Co. were early in the field, designing and building for the 1923 Lympne light 'plane competition a monoplane and a bi- plane, the former establishing the greatest mileage by covering 1,000 miles in the week, piloted by Hinkler. Of military types the firm has produced a long series since the war, but space permits only a brief mention of some of the more important. Post-war Development In 1925 was produced the little Avenger, a single-seater fighter with Napier Lion engine, having a speed of 180 m.p.h. Among heavier types may be mentioned the Alder- shot bomber with Rolls-Royce engine, produced in 1920-21, the Bison with Napier Lion in 1921-22, the Ava with two Rolls-Royce Condors in 1923, and the ambulance version of the Aldershot, the Andover, in 1924. The Avro Buffalo torpedo-carrier followed in 1925, and the following year came the Avocet, which was a single-seater fleet fighter of stressed-skin construction. A return to light plane production was made in 1926, when the first Avian, with Cirrus engine, appeared. Large numbers of Avians were built, the first being of wood, but later models having welded steel tube fuselages. On the original- Avian Bert Hinkler flew from Croydon to Australia in 15I days, a record which remained unbroken for three years. The Avro Antelope day bomber was produced in 1927, and was mainly of duralumin construction, including the covering of the flat-sided fuselage. This machine might have laid the foundation for a whole series of similar con- struction, but in the meantime the company secured the manufacturing rights for the Fokker F.VII-3m, which had a welded steel tube fuselage and wooden wing. From it was developed the Avro Ten,, and, later, the smaller Avro Five. Both were equipped with three Sid- deley engines, and both appeared in 1929. The manufacture of the fuselages for these machines gave the firm experience in welded steel tube technique, and so successful was this type considered that it was decided that, as far as possible, all future Avro aeroplanes should have this form of fuselage construction. Replacing the 504 By 1929 the Avro 504 had been the standard training aeroplane of the R.A.F. for twelve years. Then the Air Ministry decided to replace it with something more modern, and the Avro 621 was selected after prolonged and severe testing. It went into service as the Avro Tutor, and the Siddeley Lynx was chosen as the standard power plant. A development of the Tutor was the 626, designed to facilitate training in all military duties, such as gunnery, bombing, telegraphy, photography, etc. 1933 saw several types emerge from the works. For instance, there was the Commodore, a cabin biplane in- tended for the private owner, and the types 642 and 652, high-wing and low-wing commercial aeroplanes respec- tively. The Avro 636 advanced trainer appeared the fol- lowing year. It had a speed of 230 m.p.h. when fitted with the Siddeley Panther engine. This review of post-war Avro types concludes with the Anson, a twin-engined coastal reconnaissance machine pro- duced as a result of an Air Ministry demand for a machine developed from an existing commercial type. The Anson was based on the Avro 652, but the fuselage was redesigned for military work. The latest Avro type, the Anson general reconnaissance machine, has a speed of 188 m.p.h. when fitted with two Siddeley Cheetah IX enrines of 310 h.p. each. (Flight photograph.)
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
