The Avro Avian is a series of British light aircraft designed and built by Avro in the 1920s and 1930s. While the various versions of the Avian were sound aircraft, they were comprehensively outsold by the de Havilland Moth and its descendants.
Design and development
The Avro 581 Avian prototype was designed and built to compete in the Lympne light aircraft trials at Lympne Aerodrome in September 1926. Its wooden fuselage was based on that of the Avro 576 autogyro, but it was fitted with conventional biplane wings and powered by a 70 hp (50 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Genet engine.[1] It performed well at the trials, but was eliminated due to engine failure.
Avian IV, SE-ADT preserved in good condition and displayed in a café in a shopping center at Arlanda Stad close to Stockholm – Arlanda Airport, Sweden. It has now been moved to Arlanda Flygsamlingar.
In early 1927 it was re-engined with an 85 hp (63 kW) ADC Cirrus engine as the Type 581A and sold to Bert Hinkler.
Production aircraft were designated Type 594 and were built in a number of versions, mainly powered by Cirrus engines.[2] A version with a welded steel tube fuselage was produced in 1929 as the Avro 616 Avian IVM to meet overseas requirements for an easier-to-repair structure.[3] This version was built in the largest numbers, with approximately 190 built.[4]
While outsold by the de Havilland Moth and its derivatives—which first flew more than a year earlier than the Avian—the Avian was used extensively as a civil tourer or trainer, with many being sold overseas. Avians were assembled by the Whittesley Manufacturing Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA, and the Ottawa Car Manufacturing Company, Canada,[6] as well as by Avro itself.[7]
After further modifications to wings and undercarriage as the Avro 581E, Hinkler used this aircraft for a series of long-distance flights, culminating in a 15½-day solo flight from Croydon, UK to Darwin, Australia.[8] In 1998 Lang Kidby recreated this flight in a 1927 Type 594 Avian VH-UFZ (ex G-AUFZ)
Avro Avian 594 Avian III (SN R3/AV/101) was owned by Lady Mary Heath and Amelia Earhart. Earhart's Avian had an 84 hp (63 kW) Cirrus Mk II engine. It was originally registered to Lady Heath on 29 October 1927 and given the UK aircraft marking G-EBUG. When Earhart brought it to the United States it was assigned "unlicensed aircraft identification mark" 7083; aircraft not officially certificated in the United States were allowed to be flown as unlicensed but identified aircraft. Avian 7083 was used on Earhart's first long solo flight, which occurred just as Amelia was coming into the national spotlight. By making the trip in August 1928, she became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back. In 2001 Carlene Mendita recreated this flight in Greg Herrick's Type 594 Avian which he had purchased from Lang Kidby. At the time Herrick purchased the Avian from Kidby, two years prior, it was the oldest flying aircraft in Australia. It is now based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
An Avian (Red Rose) was used by Bill Lancaster on a successful long distance flight to Australia, and another (Southern Cross Minor) on his final record attempt to South Africa in 1933.
Long range single-seater again built for Charles Kingsford Smith, Southern Cross Minor. Bill Lancaster would later attempt to fly solo from England to South Africa in this aircraft, and die in the attempt.
R3/AV/127 – Avian IV airworthy at the Ala Doble Flying Collection in Esparto, California. It was once the oldest flying aircraft in Australia and has been converted from an Avian II configuration. It is painted to represent G-EBUG, an aircraft Amelia Earhart flew across the United States in 1928–1929.
R3/CN/160 – Avian IIIA on static display at Hooton Park in Cheshire. It carries G-EBZM and is a composite of several others.[19][20][21]
CN/171 G-ACGT, a Genet II powered Type 594B Avian III under restoration at Coventry, Warwickshire.
R3/CN/531 – Avian IV airworthy with Geoffrey Arthur Davis of Salisbury, South Australia.[28][29]
Replica – Avian IIIA on display at the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton, Alberta.[30] It is painted as G-CAVB as a memorial to a heroic flight by Wop May when he flew diphtheria medicine mid-winter to a village where an outbreak was occurring on the Canadian prairies.[citation needed]
Specifications (Avian IVM)
Avro Avian III 3-view drawing from NACA Aircraft Circular No.70
Data from British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 1[31]
General characteristics
Crew: 2
Length: 24 ft 3 in (7.39 m)
Wingspan: 28 ft 0 in (8.53 m)
Height: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Wing area: 245 sq ft (22.8 m2)
Empty weight: 1,005 lb (456 kg)
Gross weight: 1,523 lb (691 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Cirrus Hermes I 4-cylinder air-cooled in-line piston engine, 105 hp (78 kW)
^"AIRCRAFT". The Aeroplane Collection. The Aeroplane Collection. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
^"[Untitled]". The Aeroplane Collection. The Aeroplane Collection. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
^"AVRO AVIAN IVM". Canada Aviation and Space Museum. Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation. Archived from the original on 7 January 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
