Avro 552

Infobox Aircraft
name=552


caption=
type=Civil utility aircraft
manufacturer=Avro
Canadian Vickers (under licence)
designer=
first flight=16 July 1921
introduced=
retired=
status=
primary user=Argentine Navy
more users=Royal Canadian Air Force
produced=
number built=33
variants with their own articles=

The Avro 552 was a British light aircraft produced in the early 1920s. It was another attempt by Avro to sell a derivative of the wartime Avro 504 into the civil market.

Design and development

In this case, the company took advantage of the large number of war-surplus Wolseley Viper engines left over from Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a production. In 1921, one of these was married to a standard 504K airframe for evaluation under the designation Avro 551. Trials proved encouraging, but an extra fuel tank was installed in the upper wing as a result of the Viper's higher rate of fuel consumption, and changes were made to the aileron design as well.

This configuration went into production as the 552, with the Argentine Navy purchasing 13 examples of a float-equipped version, the 552A, which served as trainers until 1927. Two similar machines were purchased by Bulgaria.

In 1924, the Royal Canadian Air Force arranged for Canadian Vickers to purchase a licence to produce five landplane and nine seaplane examples for use in forestry patrol. These differed from British-built aircraft by the use of U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory floats, and increased fuel tankage for extended range. Licence production was also undertaken by C.B. Field of Kingswood Knoll, Surrey, who built three aircraft from surplus components supplied by Avro. These were flown as banner tugs by Inca Aviation until 1935.

The fuselage of the 552 prototype, "G-EAPR" was eventually used as the basis for the Cierva C.8 autogyro, but was eventually converted back to winged configuration by a private owner when disposed of by the company.

Operators

;ARG
*Argentine Navy;BUL;flag|Canada|1921
*Royal Canadian Air Force

pecifications (552)

aerospecs
met or eng?= eng

crew=one pilot
capacity=1 passenger or instructor
length m=8.54
length ft=28
length in=0
span m=10.98
span ft=36
span in=0

height m=3.18
height ft=10
height in=5
wing area sqm=30.7
wing area sqft=330

gross weight kg=1,025
gross weight lb=2,260

eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Wolseley Viper
eng1 kw= 134
eng1 hp= 180

References

*
* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/aircraftpage.php?ID=269 British Aircraft Directory]

ee also

aircontent

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