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Avro 523 Pike

1916 WORLD WAR 1 X-PLANE

History of Avro 523 Pike

Avro (A.V. Roe and Company) was established in 1910 and is headquartered in Manchester. The company played a major role from World War I to the Cold War, hosting the release of well-known products such as the World War II Avro 504 trainer, the World War II Avro Lancaster and the Cold War Avro Vulcan War. The Avro 523 "Pike" was a little-known development to most, and in any case only two airframes were completed, which never made it past the prototype stage. The Avro 523 was actually the first officially named Avro product (Pike).

Previously, the company produced aircraft known only by the internal model.

The design of the 523 is credited to Avro engineer Roy Chadwick, one of the company's original key members, who joined the company in September 1911 at the age of 18. By historical standards, the type was traditional, consisting of a traditional fuselage frame with a biplane wing arrangement.

The wings of the biplane were projected amidships and had three bays with parallel support struts. The landing gear is fixed in place and centered forward around a pair of wheels under the weight of the fuselage. The rear wing is carried out with a simple skid. The rear wing is also conventional. The plane was flown by a crew of three, including the pilot and two dedicated gunners - the latter with front and rear gun emplacements in the cockpit.

All positions are "outdoors", providing excellent unobstructed views but also exposing the crew to harsh environments.

The engines are mounted between the upper and lower spars and are set up in a "slider" style with the propellers pointing aft. Each power plant is a single unit of a Sunbeam Nubian engine rated up to 160 hp. That gives the 523 about 7 hours of given range and a top speed of 97 mph.

Curb weight is listed as 4,000 pounds, for a total weight of 6,064. The 523 has a wingspan of exactly 60 feet, a barrel length of just over 39 feet, and a height of nearly 11 feet 8 inches.

Standard armament consists of a 7.7mm Lewis machine gun mounted on a flexible mount in the forward machine gun cockpit. Likewise, a 7.7mm Lewis machine gun was mounted on a flexible mount in the rear gunner's compartment, behind the wing but in front of the empennage.

An optional 2 x 112 lb bomb load can be stored in the internal bomb bay.

The

523 was developed at the request of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to be able to perform reconnaissance missions as a primary mission and bombing as a secondary mission. This guy will also stock the stables for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

The main role was to counteract the role of German zeppelins by attacking and destroying these targets, which provided important reconnaissance reports. The secondary role provides the RFC with a tactical advantage, allowing the 523 to engage enemy land targets and surface ships as needed.

The original Avro 523 prototype made its maiden flight in May 1916, followed by a second version with a pair of water-cooled Green E. 6 engines. Engine differences led to the second prototype receiving the official designation "523A".

The British Admiralty inspected the Avro prototype in November 1916 and deemed it outdated compared to emerging contemporaries elsewhere. As a result, RNAS failed to initiate a purchase deal, and Avro's design faltered before it was more or less forgotten by history.

At least Avro found that these two prototypes could be used as air test beds to evaluate various engine and aerodynamic concepts for the remainder of the war. However, the Admiralty was so interested in the 523 that they ordered two prototypes of the larger long-range bomber version - which would become the Avro 529 model.

RFC instead purchased O/100 series Handley-Page bombers, and RNAS decided to order short bombers for their inventory.