Avro 500

Infobox Aircraft
name=500


caption=
type=Military utility aircraft
manufacturer=Avro
designer=
first flight=3 March 1912
introduced=
retired=
status=
primary user=
more users=
produced=
number built=18
variants with their own articles=

The Avro Type E, Type 500, and Type 502 made up a family of early British military aircraft, regarded by Alliott Verdon Roe as his firm's first truly successful design.

The Type E biplane was designed in response to a War Office specification for a two-seat aircraft capable (amongst other things) of carrying a 350 lb (160 kg) payload with a total endurance of 4.5 hours. The Avro submission was based on the Avro Duigan design and was originally named "Military Biplane 1". It was a two-bay biplane with equal-span, unstaggered wings, and a boxy, rectangular-section fuselage. Lateral control was by wing-warping.

During initial trials, it soon became apparent that while top speed and rate-of-climb were below the War Office specification, the aircraft excelled in every other way. The second prototype, however, first flew on 3 May 1912 and sufficiently impressed the War Office for them to buy the prototype and place an order for two more examples, which Roe now renamed the 500. The type proved an immediate success, and orders for another four machines plus five single-seat derivatives (designated 502 by Avro) soon followed. Other examples produced included six for the British Admiralty's Air Department, one presented to the government of Portugal (paid for by public subscription), one kept by Avro as a company demonstrator, and one bought by a private individual, J. Laurence Hall (commandeered by the War Office at the outbreak of World War I). The first prototype was destroyed in a crash on 29 June 1913 that killed its student pilot.

ervice

Avro 500s were flown by the British armed forces during the first years of the war, mostly as trainers. In service, most were fitted with ailerons and a revised rudder.

Operators

;POR;UK
*Royal Flying Corps
**No. 3 Squadron RFC
**No. 4 Squadron RFC
**No. 5 Squadron RFC
*Royal Naval Air Service

pecifications

aerospecs
met or eng?= eng

crew=one pilot
capacity=1 seat for observer, instructor, or passenger
length m=8.84
length ft=29
length in=0
span m=10.97
span ft=36
span in=0

height m=2.97
height ft=9
height in=9
wing area sqm=30.7
wing area sqft=330

empty weight kg=408
empty weight lb=900
gross weight kg=617
gross weight lb=1,360

eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Gnome rotary
eng1 kw= 37
eng1 hp= 50

max speed kmh=98
max speed mph=61

endurance h= 2
endurance min= 30

climb rate ms=2.2
climb rate ftmin=440

References

*
*
* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/aircraftpage.php?ID=286 britishaircraft.co.uk]

External links

* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/aircraftpage.php?ID=286 British Aircraft Directory entry]

ee also

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