Avro 504
| Avro 504 | |
|---|---|
 A US Army Air Service Avro 504K in the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio |
|
| Type: | Trainer aircraft , multi-role fighter |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
July 1913 |
| Number of pieces: |
approx. 9,000 |
The Avro 504 was a two-seat biplane - trainer aircraft of the British manufacturer Avro .
development
The first example of the 504, powered by a Gnôme Lambda rotary engine with 59 kW (80 hp), took off on its maiden flight in Brooklands in July 1913 . With one passenger on board, the machine reached an altitude of 5,000 m, a record at the time.
In 1914 Avro received an order from the War Office for twelve Type 504 machines for the Royal Flying Corps . The Royal Naval Air Service also ordered an aircraft. Private individuals also showed interest in this aircraft type, and further machines were ordered, some with floats and other changes to the basic model.
commitment
On August 22, 1914, an Avro 504 with infantry weapons was shot down over Belgium ; it was the first British aircraft to be lost on the front lines. On October 10, an Avro 504 attacked Cologne Central Station , on October 22, 1914, an Avro 504 attacked a German train with machine gun fire for the first time. Operations as bombers and reconnaissance aircraft followed. The first four 504s delivered to the British naval aviators were transferred to Belfort , where they were prepared for a secret attack on the production halls of the Zeppelin factory in Friedrichshafen . One of the machines was not ready to fly, but the other three took off with an additional tank in the front observer cockpit and four 9 kg bombs each, flew about 200 km up the Rhine to Lake Constance and damaged a gasometer and a zeppelin hall. The squadron leader Squadron Commander Briggs had to make an emergency landing and was captured.
However, the Avro 504 soon proved to be no longer able to cope with the increasing combat demands. Attempts to arm with a rigid machine gun or machine gun firing steeply upwards on the upper wing or in the observer's seat showed little success. So the Avro 504 were withdrawn from the front-line units and around 270 of them armed with a Lewis MG were used in home defense against German bombers and zeppelins. In 1919/20, one or two Avro 504s of the Royal Flying Corps were used as combat bombers in the Russian Civil War .
The Avro 504 became known less through combat missions, but mainly through its extremely successful use as a training aircraft. When the extensive expansion of the British air force was decided in early 1917 , there was a great need for reliable trainer aircraft. From 1918, the mass-produced types 504J and 504K replaced other obsolete training aircraft. The British heir to the throne George VI. completed his flight training on an Avro 504. They remained in service as training aircraft until the 1930s.
After the war, Avro 504s found their way to numerous countries. The first aircraft of the Australian Qantas Airways , founded on November 16, 1920, was a 504K.
Versions
68 of the basic version of the Type 504 were made, and other versions of the aircraft were built in the following years. Numerous different engine types between 75 and 150 hp were used for this.
- 504A: similar to the basic model - 1485 units built, 685 of them by Avro
- 504B: Version for the British Maritime Air Force (RNAS) with larger rudder unit and modified grinding spur (one specimen was equipped with catch hooks for testing on ships) - 250 specimens built (60 by Avro)
- 504C: single-seat version for the RNAS as a patrol aircraft and for defense against zeppelin - 80 copies (30 from Avro)
- 504D: Version for the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) - six machines built
- 504E: different engines - ten copies
- 504H: this was a structurally reinforced 504B for catapult testing on ships
- 504J: Motorized like the 504E, this version of the Avro 504 begins an almost legendary career as a training aircraft and thus brings Avro a considerable number of orders (from 1917). Variants of the 504J also existed with different engines (Le Rhóne or Gnôme Monosoupape , each with 74 kW (100 PS)) - 2000 aircraft built (1350 of them by Avro)
- 504K: Since the 504 was only used in small numbers as a fighter aircraft , the orders for the originally planned engine were reduced, so there were bottlenecks in the engine delivery. Avro adapted the cell to different engines and named these models Type 504K. Were used u. a. Trulin, Gnome, Curtiss, Sunbeam, Bentley, Wasp and Hispano-Suiza motors . These aircraft were among the most diverse tests by the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough used more than 300 machines year 1930 were civilian users up into which flew and only then by the Moth series from De Havilland and the Avro Avian displaced . Total production of the 504K was 6,175 aircraft, 1,650 of which at the Avro factory.
- 504L: three-seater seaplane , equipped with a Bentley BR1 rotary engine with 112 kW (152 HP) - was only used in civil aviation - a total of 17 copies (seven from Avro)
- 504M: Expansion of a copy of a 504K to a cabin version and a 9-cylinder Gnome monosoupape engine with 74 kW (100 PS) in the summer of 1919
- 504N (also called: Lynx-Avro or Avro 504N Lynx): Before 1925, the British Ministry of Aviation placed an order with Avro for a model called the 504N. For this purpose, two machines were equipped with different engines as a test; on the one hand with the Bristol Lucifer with 75 kW (102 PS), on the other hand with the Armstrong Siddeley Lynx with 134 kW (182 PS); they decided on the Lynx, this coined the name Lynx-Avro for the 504N. After the First World War, a significant number of 504Ks were available that were no longer needed by the military. These machines were rebuilt and were now also given the designation 504N. The most noticeable change in addition to the more powerful motorization through the Lynx engine was the new landing gear - now without a skid - and a differently designed aileron . Almost 80 504K were subsequently converted to the 504N version. Several machines of the 504N were also exported, namely to the Belgian Air Force (17 pieces), to the Brazilian naval aviators (four of them), to the Chilean naval aviators (six of them - name there: 5040), to the Greek naval air force (six of them) , to the Thai Air Force (20 pieces) and an unknown number to the South African Air Force. In addition, individual copies were delivered to the Danish, Swedish and Japanese air forces. A total of 592 504N units were produced, of which Avro produced 555.
- U-1 Avruschka : Some Avro 504s fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks , who had the machines examined in the Duks aircraft factory in Moscow . The aircraft engineer Polikarpow made construction plans, based on which the aircraft factory "Krasni Lyotschik" in Petrograd produced the U-1, of which 737 copies were made and which was known there as U-1 "Avruschka".
- 504Q: single machine with previously unknown data
- 504R Gosport : 28 machines of this type - probably for the Argentine Air Force - with unknown data, were built by AVRoe and Co Ltd, 34 by the Fábrica Militar de Aviones in Argentina.
By the end of the First World War in 1918, more than 8,000 copies of all versions of the Avro 504 had been produced, 3,424 of them by Avro, the rest by 15 different licensees such as Brush Electrical, Parnall, Saunders or Blériot & Spad. It should be noted, however, that different sources indicate different quantities (3,696 machines from Avro). After the war, some of the planes were available for ten pounds.
A few examples of the 504N were manufactured under license in Belgium and Denmark .
Vickers Canada converted several 504K to the 504N standard, but also manufactured some 504N (including a floatplane) on their own.
The 504K and 504N (one of each) delivered to Japan were modified there, fitted with Japanese-made engines and built until 1940.
In 1932 the RAF officially designated the Avro Tutor as the successor to the 504N, and in 1933 the 504N was finally declared obsolete. In 1940 there was another military operation of seven civilian 504N, which were drafted by the RAF. However, two of these machines were destroyed in a hangar fire , and two others were scrapped prematurely. The remaining three machines were towing gliders at sea; these served as target objects for radar observers.
Military users
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Technical specifications
| Parameter | Avro 504 series data (standard version) | Data of the Avro 504N (Lynx-Avro) |
|---|---|---|
| crew | 2 | |
| length | 8.97 m | 8.69 m |
| span | 10.97 m | |
| Wing area | 30.66 m² | 29.73 m² |
| height | 3.17 m | 3.33 m |
| Empty mass | 558 kg | 718 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 830 kg | 1016 kg |
| drive | a le-Rhone - rotary engine , 81 kW (110 hp) | an Armstrong-Siddeley-Lynx IV radial engine, 119 kW (162 hp) |
| Top speed | 145 km / h | 161 km / h |
| Cruising speed | 126 km / h | 137 km / h |
| Ascent time to 1050 m altitude | 5 min | k. A. |
| Service ceiling | 4875 m | 4450 m |
| Max. Range | 402 km | 402 km |
| Armament | 1 Lewis MG (only when used as a fighter aircraft) | |
Avro 504 in museums
Avro 504J:
- Solent Sky, Southampton / England (replica of the machine on which King George VI of England learned to fly)
Avro 504K:
- Science Museum , South Kensington / England
- Royal Air Force Museum , Hendon / England
- Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington / England
- Shuttleworth Collection , Old Warden Aerodrome / England (airworthy copy)
- Brooklands Museum , Brooklands / England
- Museum of Science and Industry , Manchester / England
- Museum of Army Flying, Middle Wallop, Stockbridge, Hampshire / England
- US Air Force Museum in Dayton - Ohio, USA
- Power House Museum, Sydney / Australia (with Dyak engine; in this version the machine was flown for the Australian airline Qantas)
- Australian War Memorial , Canberra / Australia
- Canada Aviation and Space Museum , Rockliff Airport, Ontario / Canada
- Western Canada Aviation Museum , Winnipeg / Canada
- Aviation Museum of Central Finland , Luonetjarvi Air Force Base, Tikkakoski / Finland
- Kongelige Norske Luftforsvaret Collection, Flymuseet 2062 Gardermoen Lufthaun / Norway
Avro 504L:
- Avro Heritage Center, Woodford Aerodrome / England
Avro 504N:
- Dansk Veteranflysamling , Stauning / Denmark
See also
literature
- JM Bruce: Avro 504K. Windsock data file No. 28, Albatros Productions Ltd., Berkhamsted 1991, ISBN 0-948414-32-4 .
Web links
- English fansite for the Avro 504
- Biplanes.de Avro 504, photo series
- Avro 504 at takeoff and in flight
- Historical footage
Individual evidence
- ^ The Avro "Gosport". (PDF) In: FLIGHT. Flightglobal.com, April 15, 1926, pp. 222-224 , accessed on November 19, 2011 (English): "A new training machine of" 504 "Type"
- ↑ according to JM Bruce: Avro 504K. Windsock data file No. 28, Albatros Productions Ltd., Berkhamsted 1991, p. 4 7,029 Avro 504 of all types were delivered
- ^ Sir Peter Masefield, journalist with The Airplane 1937–1943, in: Charles Wheeler : The Road to War , BBC, 1989