Avro Baby
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| 534 Baby | |
|---|---|
 Bert Hinkler's Avro Baby in the Queensland Museum, Brisbane |
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| Type | Sports plane |
| Manufacturer | Avro |
| Designed by | Roy Chadwick |
| Maiden flight | 30 April 1919 |
| Number built | 9 |
The Avro 534 Baby (originally named the "Popular") was a British light sporting biplane built shortly after the First World War. It was a single-bay biplane of conventional configuration, with equal-span, unstaggered wings. The prototype first flew on 30 April 1919 powered by a Green engine that had previously been installed in the Avro Type D, but crashed two minutes into the flight due to pilot error. The second prototype also crashed, seriously injuring its designer Roy Chadwick, but the Baby soon achieved fame in the hands of Bert Hinkler.
On 31 May 1920, Hinkler made a non-stop flight from Croydon to Turin in 9 hours 30 minutes - a flight of 655 miles (1,050 km) and celebrated at the time as "the most meritorious flight on record". On 24 July, he won second place in the Aerial Derby at Hendon, and on 11 April 1921 set a new distance record in Australia. He flew the Baby non-stop from Sydney to his home town of Bundaberg 800 miles (1,280 km) away, making the flight in 8 hours 40 minutes. Hinkler's Baby is preserved at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane.
In June 1922, another Baby with another pilot made the first flight between London and Moscow; and a specially-modified Baby accompanied Ernest Shackleton on his final expedition to the Antarctic.
A two-seat variant of the Baby, to be powered by a Gnome rotary engine was proposed as the Avro 554, but this was never actually built.
[edit] Specifications (534 Baby)
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 17 ft 6 in (5.34 m)
- Wingspan: 25 ft (7.62 m)
- Height: 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
- Wing area: 180 sq (16.7 m2)
- Empty weight: 625 lb (283 kg)
- Loaded weight: 857 lb (389 kg)
- Powerplant: 1× Green, 35 hp (26 kw)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 78 mph (126 km/h)
- Range: 240 miles (386 km)
- Rate of climb: 500 ft/mi (2.5 m/s)
[edit] References
- Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions, 93.
- britishaircraft.co.uk
[edit] See also
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