Avro 531 Spider

The Avro 531 Spider is a project for a single-seat biplane fighter aircraft of the British manufacturer Avro.

History

This aircraft Avro developed their own initiative, without a corresponding order on the part of the Royal Air Force was present, hoping that this mission would follow in the event of a successful design.

The first flight took place in April 1918; The machine was powered by a Le Rhone rotary engine with an output of 81 kW (110 hp). This engine was in order to improve flight performance later exchanged against a stronger Clerget engine.

The machine had two different length surfaces ( the lower surface was much less than the upper, almost a half Decker ), and consisted of a fabric-covered wooden structure holzbeplankt on the lower wing.

If it had come to mass production of the 531 Spider, it might have been able to produce the aircraft is extremely economical because it was designed construction that is to a large contingent of members of not more assembled 504K could have used.

In addition, they had opted for the use of rigid welded struts between the wings that facilitated the assembly.

An interesting detail of construction was a circular recess in the upper wing, which should allow the fighter pilots upward visibility.

Although the flight tests showed that it is the 531 Spider acted by a nimble and solid aircraft, resulted in Avro no job, because the Air Force had chosen the competing product Sopwith Snipe as a future RAF fighters. So it was with the one produced copy.

A second - probably slightly modified - machine whose parts were already made ​​, and what should be the designation 531A was not built; the parts were probably used for the construction of the Avro 538.

Specifications

Pictures of Avro 531 Spider

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