Avro Type 510

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Contents

Type Description

• Type 510
• Two-seat racing seaplane designed by Avro to compete in the 1914 Circuit of Britain Race. The fuselage was of rectangular section, built up of four ash longerons connected by struts and cross members of ash and spruce, the forward fuselage being sufficiently deep to totally enclose th engine, which was mounted on strong bearers connected up to the lower longerons. Pilot and poassenger were seated in tandem, the pilot occupying the rear seat, and dual controls were fitted. It was a conventional two-bay biplane of large, but greatly unequal span, with ailerons on the upper wings only, the upper mainplane overhung the lower by more than 12 ft. and the extension planes (which carried the ailerons), were braced by cables to steel tube kingposts. Both upper and lower main planes featured pronounced dihedral. The tailplane featured a balanced rudder but no fixed fin, pivoted around a tubular extension of the stern post of the fuselage. The lower end of this tubular rudder post carried a small water rudder. The undercarriage consisted of four steel struts connected to the attachment points of each float. These were of entirely new design with a pronounced taper aft of the single step. The tail was supported on a large wooden float.
  The race was called off at the outbreak of the First World War, but the Admiralty also placed an order for five production Avro 510s. They stipulated a taller undercarriage incorporating an extra inclined strut and using the well-tried, but entirely outmoded, flat backed floats, and an added fixed fin. One 150 h.p. Sunbeam powerplant, later named Nubian.

Production Details

Notes

1. Per Turpin [3], the car for Coastal Patrol Airship serial C1 was fabricated using two Type 510 fuselages back to back in a tractor/pusher configuration. The first flight of C1 took place on 26 May 1915, at which date all completed Type 510 airframes are accounted for [4]. Avro would appear to have constructed additional fuselage components to enable the fabrication of the car for C1.

Production References

1. Avro Aircraft Since 1908, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 1965)
2. British Aircraft Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
3. British Naval Airships, Brian J Turpin - Air Britain Aviation World 2018/4 (Air-Britain Publications)
4. Royal Navy Aircraft Serials and Units, 1911-1919, Ray Sturtivant and Gordon Page (Air-Britain Publications, 1992)
5. Flight 18 Sep 1914