Avro 618 Ten

The Avro 618 Ten was a three -engined passenger and transport aircraft of the British manufacturer Avro in the late 1920s.

It was a licensed replica of the Dutch Fokker F.VII. The name Ten (English for ten ) refers to the capacity of the aircraft, eight passengers and two crew members.

History

In 1928, Avro technician inspected the work of the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. This visit led to a collaboration between Avro and Fokker and a license built Fokker F.VII/b3m, a three -engined high-wing monoplane. The license agreement allowed Avro selling the machines in the entire British Empire, but not in Canada.

Strangely enough, this machine had several features that were previously strictly refused by the authorities in the British Air Ministry. Already since May 1926, the Air Ministry, however, a Fokker F.VII/b3m, which was at that time delivered spectacular owned. The Fokker - chief test pilot had shortly before landing performs a loop and impressed the audience with it. Since all the tests of this machine had been satisfactory at the Air Ministry, this paved the way for the licensed production of the Fokker at Avro.

The license version of Avro was broadly identical to the model and differed only in details from the machine by Fokker to meet UK regulations. The public Avro presented the new model at the "Olympia Aero Show " in London in July 1929.

Construction

The Avro 618 Ten, it was a high-wing, the wing was sperrholzbeplankt. The fuselage consisted of a fabric-covered steel tube structure. One of the three engines had been installed in the fuselage nose, the other two engines were sitting in the wings. The non- retractable landing gear consisted of a spring-loaded two-wheel main landing gear and a rigid tail skid.

The machine was three per 179 kW ( 243 hp) payable Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV B series motors driven.

Use

Were built by the Avro 618 14 aircraft, including five piece as original equipment for the airline service in 1929 newly founded by the Australian aviation pioneer Sir Charles Kingsford Smith airline Australian National Airways Ltd. .. were Christened the aircraft on the name Southern Cloud, Southern Moon, Southern Sky, Southern Star and Southern Sun. As of April 1931, these machines took part in the first test of the planned airmail connection England - Australia. One of the pilots was James Allan Mollison, the future husband of aviation pioneer Amy Johnson.

Since the Australian lines, however, quickly ran into economic difficulties were the Tens in a short time at various companies in operation. A machine was rebuilt, the cell was amplified, it received more wings and more powerful engines, 246 kW ( 335 hp) Wright Whirlwind J6- end 7th That in the name of "Faith in Australia" baptized aircraft should perform a world tour; However, this project was canceled due to problems with the engines and a broken landing gear when the plane reached England. After the repair and remodeling in the Avro factory, the machine was flown back to Australia and put it in a time of 6 days, 17 hours and 45 minutes set a new world record for this distance on.

In the period following the Avro 618 Tens showed solid performance in a wide variety of airlines, a machine was also used by the Egyptian Air Force.

The last remaining airworthy in Australia Ten - the Faith in Australia - was involved in refugee evacuation flights in New Guinea in 1941.

The last aircraft was delivered on 27 July 1937, the Wireless And Equipment Flight of the Royal Aircraft Establishment for testing; there she was only three months to October 1937 in use.

Military use

  • Egyptian Air Force
  • Royal Air Force

Specifications

Faith in Australia: three each 246 kW ( 335 hp ) payable Wright J6 -7 Whirlwind

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