Avro Avian
| Avian | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Bert Hinkler's Avro Avian displayed at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia | |
| Role | Tourer/Trainer |
| Manufacturer | Avro |
| Designer | Roy Chadwick |
| First flight | 1926 |
| Introduction | 1927 |
| Primary users | Private pilot owners Royal Canadian Air Force South African Air Force Chinese Naval Air Service Estonian Air Force |
| Produced | 1926-1928 |
| Number built | 405 |
The Avro Avian was a series of British light aircraft designed and built by Avro in the 1920s and '30s. While the various versions of the Avian were sound aircraft, they were comprehensively outsold by the de Havilland Moth and its descendants.
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. It performed well at the trials, but was eliminated due to engine failure.
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. 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. This version was built in the largest numbers, with approximately 190 built.
The Avian was also produced under licence in Canada, by Ottawa Car Manufacturing Company in Ottawa, Ontario.
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 being licence-built (or assembed) by the Whittesley Manufacturing Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA, and the Ottawa Car Manufacturing Company, Canada, as well as by Avro itself.
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. In 1998 Lang Kidby recreated this flight in a 1927 Type 594 Avian VH-UFZ (ex G-AUFZ)
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