Two seat unequal span tractor biplane, initially built as an amphibian, fitted with a single large
main float (equipped with wheels) under the fuselage, and two outrigger floats under the wings. Later converted to a landplane
with twin skid undercarriage. One 100 h.p. Gnome powerplant.
Type G / Type 503
(See
Note 2) Two seat twin float seaplane, a slightly larger version of the Type 501 and featured less of a overhang on the
mainplane and no inclined struts. One 100 h.p. Gnome powerplant. In Germany, unlicensed copies were also built
by AGO and Gotha.
Foreign Derivatives of the Avro 503 Line
Germany
AGO W2
Unlicensed
copy of the Type 503. One 100 h.p. Gnome powerplant.
Gotha WD 1
Unlicensed copy of the
Type 503. First aircraft featured a Gnome powerplant, and was basically identical to the Type 503. Further aircraft had
a 100 h.p. Mercedes powerplant.
Gotha WD 2
As WD 1 with modifications
to the fin and rudder. 160 h.p. Mercedes powerplant except where noted.
1 aircraft built by A.V. Roe & Co. Ltd., Brownsfield
Mills, Manchester. First flew, from Shoreham, May 1913.
none
1
To the German Naval Air Arm (Marine Luftschiff Abteilung)
September 1912 as D12.
3 aircraft
built by A.V. Roe & Co. Ltd., Miles Platting, Manchester, to contract C.P.36208/13 for the RNAS. Delivered between
September and October 1913.
51
- 53
3
All
later converted to landplane trainers.
1
aircraft ordered from A.V. Roe & Co. Ltd., Miles Platting, Manchester, for the Peruvian Government in 1914. Cancelled
due to the outbreak of war.
1
Reported
as being built and transferred to the Admiralty, but there seems no evidence of this.
Deleted from RNAS inventory
in February 1916. Reported as being rebuilt using Avro 503 parts, it was exported to Norway in 1919 but not registered until
9 April 1927, as N-5 to Christian Hellesen in Tönsberg.
Per Harlin [4], this aircraft was initially
refered to as the Type G and not Type H as given by Jackson [1], reusing the designation of the earlier cabin monoplane. This
was quickly changed to Type 503 with the introduction on the new designation system.
Production References
Avro Aircraft
Since 1908, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 1965)
British Aircraft Before The Great War, Michael
H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
The Gotha Seaplanes, Cross & Cockade
Vol 45 No 2
Avro Types 501 & 503 Floatplanes and their German Derivatives, Cross & Cockade Vol 45
No 3
Gotha Aircraft of WWI: A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplane, Jack Herris (Aeronaut Books,
2013)
