Avro 504k WW1 trainer aircraft

[@blancolirio]

man, it's no wonder so many just burst into flames when the spark hit the raw fuel and oil soaked dope and fabric over wood back in the day... Great stuff downunder-keep 'em flyin', keep 'em coming HAFU!

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Beautiful airplane.

[@gumbykooza]

@TheCuster58 That is how they control the engine power. They don't have a throttle as we know it in the modern sense, so they switch the ignition on and off, which is why you hear the engine cut out. Due to it being a rotary (i.e. the whole engine turns with the propeller) there is little to no danger of the engine stopping because of the mass of engine turning.

[@routmaster38]

That kind of engine was beautiful to see in gleaming aluminium perfectly balanced complete with mica spark plugs and bare brass hi tension wires to spark spark plug.

[@TheBlitzJager]

@gumbykooza Yeah that's pretty much right. And when you hear the popping sound, I think that's it at, for example, 1/4 speed. I think the slowest it can go is 1/8 speed without using the cut out procedure. I could be wrong but I think that's how it works

[@flyernzl]

The description is mildly incorrect. This particular aircraft is one of a small batch built new by Avro in the UK in 1925 and bought into New Zealand as a replacement for the WW1-era Avros then in use by the military air arm. So yes it is an original, but no it's not of 1917 age. A wonderful artifact nevertheless.

[@BlueSwallowAircraft]

Its sister Avro 504K serial A201 is being restored right now by Blue Swallow Aircraft, LLC in the US. We helped the original restorer of this 504K Stewart Tantrum many years ago.

[@paulhunter123]

whats the difference between an avro and a be2

[@HistAvFilmUnit]

Completely different aircraft, built by different manufacturers: Avro 504 and Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2. Both are biplanes, both are two seaters. The 504 was powered with a rotary engine while the BE's used Royal Aircraft Factory 1a inline engines.

[@theengineer9520]

Great vintage plane. I thought the tail standard was red white blue? This is the French standard of blue white red? I could be wrong - happy to be corrected.

[@HistAvFilmUnit]

From memory the RFC changed the order of the colours part way through the First World War.

[@johnevans7261]

Rudder stripes of blue, white and red with blue leading were common to both French and British military aircraft until 1930, when the British Air Ministry ordered those on RAF aircraft to be reversed, red leading. Use of rudder stripes largely ceased during the 1930s, to eventually be replaced by the fin flash of red, white and blue, red leading, in late 1939-early 1940. The roundels on Royal Naval Air Service aircraft were originally a white disc with a red perimeter. When that service cooperated with French air units during the Gallipoli campaign, a blue centre was added, making them the same as the French. When the RNAS later went to the aid of RFC units on the Western Front in 1916, the roundel colours were reversed, red now centre, and from then on all British military aircraft had the same roundels (except those that served in the Pacific and SE Asia in WW2, when red was eliminated).