Avro 500 from the front
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The Avro 500 (Type E) was the company’s first military aircraft and was designed in response to the Air Ministry’s first military aircraft specification.
That specification was issued in 1911 and called for a two seat aircraft, able to carry a 350lb payload as well as its essential equipment, with an endurance of 4.5 hours, initial rate of climb of 200ft/ min, top speed of 55mph. able to stay at 4,500ft for one hour. It also had to be delivered to Salisbury Plain in a crate.
A.R. Roe designed a two seat biplane using experience gained on the Duigan biplane of 1910. The fuselage of the new aircraft had a square cross section and was built around a box girder frame. It was fabric covered at the rear and metal covered at the front. The pilot and passenger were in tandem cockpits with the passenger in front (just below the trailing edge of the upper wing) and the pilot behind. There were small celluloid panels in the floor to give them both downwards vision. The main fuel tank was carried in front of the passenger’s cockpit.
The wings had ash spars and were covered with Pegamoid fabric (pegamoid is a waterproof varnish). They could be detached and spilt into three sections for ground transport. Twin gravity fuel tanks were carried on the struts carrying the central section of the upper wing. Controls on the War Office machines was initially by wing warping. Outer wing panels with tapered ailerons were later added to them.
The main undercarriage consisted of two wheels on a leaf-sprung axle, with a skid between them, while the tail was carried on a rubber-sprung skid.
Power came from a 60hp E.N.V. watercooled engine, which powered a 10ft Avro airscrew. Spiral tube radiators were carried on either side of the front fuselage, with smaller radiators on the centre section struts either side of the passenger’s head.
The aircraft was originally known as the ‘Military Biplane’. It was later known as the Type E prototype.
It made its maiden flight on 3 March 1912, with Wilfred Parke at the controls. On 23 March Parke reached 1,000ft in six minutes and 2,000ft in 13 minutes while carrying a heavy passenger. It was decided to enter it into the Mortimer Singer prize of 1911. However on 20 April the aircraft crashed after suffering partial engine failure while taking off to fly to Hendon to take part in the prize contest. The aircraft rolled onto its side and the auxiliary radiators folded across the top of the front cockpit. The passenger, engineer W.H. Sayers had to be rescued by cutting a hole in the side. As a result when the aircraft was repaired the auxiliary radiators were removed.
The repaired aircraft took part in Air Ministry trials at Farnborough in June 1912. It then went to Brooklands where it became a flying test bed for the new 60hp A.B.C engine. The aircraft made a series of straight ‘hops’ with the new engine on 31 August, and its first proper maiden flight on 18 October, this time with R.L. Chartesris at the controls.
In 1913 the original engine was restored and the aircraft went to the Avro School at Shoreham. However on 29 June 1913 the aircraft crashed during the first day pupils were allowed to fly it, causing fatal wounds to R.N. Wight.
A.V.Roe built a second, almost identical aircraft in 1912, but this time powered by the lighter 50hp Gnome seven cylinder rotary engine. This engine greatly improved the performance of the aircraft, which on 8 May 1912 reached 2,000ft in 5 minutes. On 9 May it flew to Laffan’s Plain and on 10 May passed its official trials. This aircraft was given the first Avro type number, starting at 500.
The War Office purchased this aircraft and ordered two more with dual controls. These three aircraft went to the Central Flying School at Upavon, with serial numbers 404, 405 and 406. It was a succesful trainer, and four more were ordered in November 1912. This was followed by five single seaters ordered in January 1913 for No.3 Squadron, RFC. The last of these aircraft was delivered in June 1913.
The Avro 500 was also used by the RNAS. Six were ordered in 1913, with the first commissioned in August 1913 and the last in April 1914.
After the outbreak of the First World War the Avro 500s remained in use as training aircraft with some surviving in 1916.
One Avro 500 was exported to Portugal in 1912. Two more were sold into civilian hands. Four had been ordered by the Royal Aero Club but this order was cancelled by the outbreak of war.
Avro 500
Engine: Gnome Rotary
Power: 50hp
Crew: 2
Span: 36ft 0in
Length: 29ft 0in
Height: 9ft 9in
Empty weight: 900lb
Maximum take-off weight: 1,300lb
Max speed: 61mph
Climb Rate: 440ft/ min
