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Страна: Великобритания

Год: 1916

Истребитель

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A.Jackson Avro Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)

Avro 523 Pike

  In 1916 A. V. Roe decided to move the Avro factory from Manchester to a waterside site convenient for the development of naval aircraft, and bought the stretch of Hampshire grassland which is now Hamble Aerodrome, together with a mile of foreshore on the adjacent Southampton Water. Manchester architect Harry Fairhurst designed the new Avro Hamble Works and a garden city of 350 houses for employees, but after the hangars and only 24 houses had been built, wartime shortage of building materials halted the scheme. Very reluctantly the company was compelled to keep its main works in Manchester and to use Hamble only for erection and as an experimental establishment.
  It was to Hamble therefore that their first twin-engined machine and the first to receive a type name, the Avro 523 Pike, was sent for erection and test. Designed by Roy Chadwick to RAF Types IV, VI and VII as a longdistance photo-reconnaissance fighter or short range day or night bomber, it was powered by two opposite-handed 160 hp Sunbeam engines driving pusher airscrews. A fine example of advanced thinking, the Pike was a large three-bay biplane equipped with horizontal-tier bomb-stowage (designed personally by A. V. Roe) and carrying the pilot just ahead of the mainplanes. Gunners’ cockpits fore and aft were armed with Lewis guns on rotatable ring mountings. The divided undercarriage was sprung with larger editions of the famous Avro shock absorbers, and a large comma-type rudder was hinged to a fixed fin of low aspect ratio.
  Although the Pike was apparently sent to Hamble some months earlier, the aircraft was erected over a twelve-day period ending on November 11, 1916. After initial tests, new wings were called for by the Admiralty and these arrived at Hamble on January 22, 1917. Performance on a mere 320 hp was said to be very good but the Pike appeared too late. Production contracts had already been awarded to Short Bros for a standard RNAS bomber, and the RFC was interested solely in the much larger Handley Page heavy bombers then under construction.
  During test flying, the Pike was sent to the RNAS experimental establishment on the Isle of Grain for demonstration before Admiralty officials but during one flight the Pike was flown with the C.G. position too far aft and was so tail heavy that F. P. Raynham dared not throttle back to attempt a landing. The situation was saved through the gallantry of R. H. Dobson (later Sir Roy Dobson), who climbed out of the rear cockpit and along the top of the fuselage to transfer his weight to the bow gunner’s position. The danger of stalling was averted and a successful landing made. By the end of February 1917, the Pike was ready for delivery, though it was not actually flown to Eastchurch until March 24, 1917.
  A second machine, the Avro 523A, built at Manchester and initially tested at Southport, was fitted with two 150 hp Green engines like its predecessor driving pusher airscrews and cooled by nose radiators on each nacelle. Available photographs suggest it was flown both with a single fin and triple fin arrangement. The latter had two Avro 504 style comma rudders outboard which was possibly an attempt to overcome reported stability problems. On completion of four weeks of extensive test flying the machine, which was allocated the RFC serial A316, was despatched from Southport to Hamble on September 11, 1916. Its exposure to the elements at Southport necessitated thorough renovation during which process it was converted to tractor configuration with revised engine mounts and rear radiators and the two outboard fins were dispensed with. It flew for the first time in this form in February 1917. Later, after the completion of official tests both machines were returned to the manufacturers to enjoy extensive experimental careers and were still in commission at Hamble in 1918. Plans to produce Avro 523B and 523C variants with higher powered Sunbeam and Rolls-Royce engines were shelved, but the Admiralty ordered an improved version which appeared in 1917 as the Avro 529.


SPECIFICATION AND DATA
   Manufacturers: A. V. Roe and Co. Ltd., Clifton Street, Miles Platting, Manchester; and Hamble Aerodrome, near Southampton, Hants.
   Power Plants:
   (Avro 523) Two 160 h.p. Sunbeam
   (Avro 523A) Two 150 h.p. Green
   Dimensions:
   Span 60 ft. 0 in. Length 39 ft. 1 in.
   Height 11 ft. 8 in. Wing area 815 sq. ft.
   Weights: (Avro 523) Tare weight 4,000 lb. All-up weight 6,064 lb.
   Performance: (Avro 523)
   Maximum speed 97 m.p.h.
   Climb to 5,000 ft. 9 min. 30 sec.
   Endurance 7 hours
   Production:
   (Avro 523) One aircraft only, Works Order number believed to be 2230. Allocated the serial N523 after delivery to the RNAS.
   (Avro 523A) Two aircraft ordered to contract 87/A/329 dated April 12, 1916, and serials A316 and A317 allocated. It is believed that only A316 was built and that its Works Order was 2231.



Avro 529

  In 1916 the Admiralty ordered two enlarged versions of the Pike for long-range bombing duties. Unnamed and known only as the Avro 529 and 529A, they had three-bay folding wings rigged without dihedral, and although closely resembling the Pike were distinguishable from it by the rudder shape. That of the Pike was flat topped with a straight bottom edge to the balance portion, but those of the Avro 529s were curved with a semicircular balance area.
  Whereas the first aircraft was built wholly in Manchester and assembled at Hamble, the second was sent there in unfinished state to make way for increased Avro 504K production at Manchester. The Avro 529, first flown in March 1917, was powered by uncowled 190 hp Rolls-Royce Falcons mounted at mid-gap and driving opposite handed airscrews. The Avro 529A, flown at Hamble in the following October, had two 230 hp Galloway-built B.H.P. engines which were fully cowled and housed in nacelles on the lower mainplane. Radically different installations called for two distinct types of fuel systems and in the Avro 529 petrol was carried in a 140 gallon tank in the centre fuselage. On the Avro 529A each nacelle carried its own 50 gallon supply with small wind-driven pumps to raise the fuel to a 10 gallon gravity tank above the engine.
  Lewis guns were mounted on Scarff rings over front and rear cockpits and the rear gunner was provided with emergency dual control. The front gunner also acted as bomb aimer and steered the pilot on to target with the aid of a Gosport speaking tube. On the 529A, which carried twenty 50 lb bombs stowed nose upwards inside the fuselage between the spars of the lower wing, he was able to use a projecting prone position in the cockpit floor.
  Apart from poor elevator control (a shortcoming of both types), the performance of the Avro 529A was very good on such low power, asymmetrical flying being particularly easy. Nevertheless no production contract materialised and only the prototypes were built.
  Both machines were tested at the Aeroplane Experimental Station, Martlesham Heath. The Avro 529A 3695 arrived there for its trials on October 31, 1917, but during the course of these the rudder gave way in the air on November 11, 1917, and the machine crashed. Interestingly, the same problem had occurred, without catastrophe, to the Avro 529 during initial tests in March 1917 and the rudder was strengthened as a result. This first machine was last heard of on January 19, 1918, when it was flown in comparative trials at Martlesham with the Blackburn Kangaroo prototype B9970, a machine which was both larger and more powerful than the Avro 529.


SPECIFICATION AND DATA
   Manufacturers: A. V. Roe and Co. Ltd., Clifton Street, Miles Platting, Manchester; and Hamble Aerodrome, near Southampton, Hants.
   Power Plants:
   (Avro 529) Two 190 h.p. Rolls-Royce Falcon
   (Avro 529A) Two 230 h.p. B.H.P. (Galloway-built)

Dimensions, Weights and Performances:
   Avro 529 Avro 529A
Span 63 ft. 0 in. 64 ft. 1 in.
Length 39 ft. 8 in. 39 ft. 8 in.
Height 13 ft. 0 in. 13 ft. 0 in.
Wing area 922 1/2 sq. ft. 910 sq. ft.
Tare weight 4,736 lb. 4,361 lb.
All-up weight 6,309 lb. 7,135 lb.
Maximum speed 95 m.p.h. 116 m.p.h.
Climb
   to 5,000 ft. - 7 min. 0 sec.
   to 6,500 ft. 11 min. 25 sec. 9 min 50 sec
Ceiling 13,500 ft. 17,500 ft.
Endurance 5 hours 5 hours 15 min.

   Production: Prototypes only under Contract CP. 122495/16 with R.F.C. serials 3694 (Avro 529) and 3695 (Avro 529A)

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Описание:

  • A.Jackson Avro Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)
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  • P.Lewis British Bomber since 1914 (Putnam)
  • J.Bruce British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 (Putnam)
  • H.King Armament of British Aircraft (Putnam)
  • Jane's All The World Aircraft 1919
  • W.Green, G.Swanborough The Complete Book of Fighters
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