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Royal Flying Corps WW1 AVRO 504 504B fighter bomber
reconnaissance biplane
The Avro 504 is most famous for bombing the Zeppelin factory at
Friedrichshafen. It was designed by Alliot Vernon Roe in 1913 as an easy to fly lightweight, two-seater
aircraft. When the First World War started a year later it was adapted for light-bombing and reconnaissance
missions. It is also famous for being the first British plane shot down by
the enemy on 22nd August 1914 and the first to machinegun troops on the
ground. The single seat Avro 504B entered service with the Royal Flying Corps
early in 1915. This version of the Avro 504 could store extra fuel and take part in long-range reconnaissance missions.
The Avro 504 was not a successful combat aircraft and they were withdrawn from the Western Front at the end of
1914 as newer faster planes were developed.
In the summer of 1915 Avro 504B was withdrawn from front-line
service. It was
held on reserve in Britain to be used against Zeppelins when they bombed Britain. It was
also used as a training aircraft for the rest of the war and
around the world some were still being used at the start of the
second world war. Nearly 9,000 Avro 504 aircraft of different variants were built.
Sir Alliot Verdon Roe (Founder of the AVRO WW1 fighters) built his
first plane in
Putney, South West London in 1907. A prize of £2,500 (over a million pounds
in today's money) was offered for the first flight around the famous
Brooklands Motor Racing Track. The first engine he fitted, a 6hp JAP engine
was not powerful enough. He fitted a more powerful 24hp engine in May 1908.
Roe used a tow rope attached to cars to test his flying machine along the
finishing straight of the race track. In June 1908 he managed to get 150
feet into the air. Alliot Verdon Roe was the first British Subject to leave the ground in an
aeroplane of his own design. The original aircraft was destroyed in a
sudden gust of wind very soon after its first flight. A.V.Roe carried on
designing aircraft and formed A.V.Roe & Co Ltd (AVRO) in 1910. The
company produced many excellent fighters and bombers. The most famous being
the Dam Busting RAF AVRO Lancaster four engined heavy bomber. Hawker
Siddeley merged with the company and they themselves became part of British
Aerospace. This airworthy replica and exact copy of Roe's wooden workshop
shed were built by the staff of the Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey,
England
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