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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2060.PDF
FLIGHT 16 July 1954 83 THE AVRO 504 Historic Military Aircraft No. 8 IN the autumn of 1916 a new 504 variant was built for the R.F.C. This was the 504J, powered by the 100 h.p. Gnome Monosoupape engine, and more popularly known to the R.F.C. as the Mono-Avro. The engine was installed in the usual nose-bearing mounting, and the cowling was little different from that of the other rotary-powered Avros. The R.F.C.-pattern wings with short ailerons were fitted, and there was no tail fin. As the supply of Mono-Gnomes permitted, machines which had been ordered as 504As were built as 504Js; production aircraft began to appear in 1917 and were issued to R.F.C. training aerodromes. At the end of 1916, Major R. R. Smith-Barry was given com mand of No. 1 Reserve Squadron at Gosport. He had qualified for his R.Ae.C. aviator's certificate (No. 161) on November 28th, 1911, and had gone to France with No. 5 Squadron in August 1914. After recovering from injuries sustained in the crash of a B.E.8 he had served at home as an instructor, and had flown at night on anti-Zeppelin patrol. In July 1916 he was given com mand of No. 60 Squadron, and returned to England in tEg> following December. In his duties with No. 1 Reserve Squadron, Smith-Barry evolved an instructional technique which consisted largely of demonstration and explanation. At that time so little was known about the reason's for an aeroplane's reactions to control move ments that the Smith-Barry system was revolutionary in its approach, but soon proved its worth in the results it produced. No. 1 Reserve Squadron acquired an enviable reputation and was known throughout the R.F.C. as a thoroughly efficient training unit. Major-General J. M. Salmond, who was then in command of Training Division, had given Major Smith-Barry a completely free hand„ When the results proved to be so excellent, Maj-Gen. Salmond recommended that No. 1 Reserve Squadron be expanded and developed as a School of Special Flying, with the main object of training instructors in order that the Smith-Barry system might be spread throughout the R.F.C.'s training organization. On this Avro 504]— serial number C4451 —His Royal Highness Prince Albert (later King George VI) learned to fly. His late Majesty was, in fact, receiving a /es- son in the aircraft when this photograph was taken. PART 2 This was done in August 1917 by tRV«iditjc£Uj£*W6T. 27 and 55 Training Squadrons. The chosen instrument of the Gosport School was the Avro 504J, and Smith-Barry gave a salutory shock to the con temporary philosophy of flying training by giving ab initio instruction on it. Up to that time opinions of the Avro had been remarkably diverse: they varied from the one extreme of regard ing the aircraft as a dangerous, over-sensitive machine, to the other of recognizing it as the delightful aeroplane it was. At all training stations, however, it had been regarded as an advanced type to which pupils graduated after receiving elementary instruc tion on such types as Maurice Farman Longhorns and Shorthorns. In its time and in relation to contemporary front-line types, the Avro 504J was very nearly ideal as a trainer. The controls were light and powerful, and the machine's response to their use was both lively and positive. The sensitivity of the controls was a great aid to the Smith-Barry doctrine of demonstration, and at the same time revealed pupils' faults immediately. The rotary engine gave pupils a realistic foretaste of what they might expect on rotary-powered Service types; and the narrow track of the under carriage permitted the demonstration of torque effect on take-off, for it revealed the Avro's tendency to swing. In this further respect, therefore, pupils learned what was to be expected of scouts with higher-powered rotary engines. The fact that the 100 h.p. Mono-Gnome would continue to turn over freely when switched off enabled forced landings to be taught realistically, and the engine was controlled by a single lever only. The rate of climb was good enough to enable a useful height to be reached in a reasonable time, and the Avro could perform all aerobatics known at that time. The Avro 504J deserves to be remembered as the aeroplane which made possible the R.A.F.'s system of flying training, a system which, at its inception, was far ahead of any other method of instruction and which, but little modified, remains in use today. The exploits of the Gosport Avros in the hands of such pilots as Capt. Williams, Capt. Foote, Capt. Duncan Davis, and Maj. Brearley have assumed a near-legendary quality which was Parnall-built 504K, with 100 h.p. Gnome Mono soupape engine.
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