The Avro Baby was a single-bay biplane of conventional configuration with a wire-braced wooden structure covered in canvas. It had equal-span, unstaggered wings which each carried two pairs of ailerons. Initially, the aircraft was finless and had a rudder of almost circular shape. There were later variations on this. The main undercarriage was a single-axle arrangement and there was the usual tailskid.
The first Babies were powered by a water cooled in-line Green engine of pre-1914 design that had previously been installed in the Avro Type D, though thoroughly remodelled post-war by the Green Engine Co. Ltd. It produced 35 hp (26 kW). Most of the later Babies also used this engine design, new-built from original Green drawings by Peter Brotherhood Ltd. of Peterborough, though some variants used either a 60 hp (45 kW) ADC Cirrus 1 or a 80 hp (60 kW) le Rhone. These new build Greens were about 6 lb (3 kg) lighter.
The prototype first flew on 30 April 1919; it crashed two minutes into the flight due to pilot error. The second prototype flew successfully on 31 May 1919.
The type 534A Water Baby was a floatplane version with an altered rudder and large fin. The fourth (counting the short-lived prototype) Baby was designated Type 534B, distinguished by its plywood-covered fuselage and reduced-span lower wing. The Type 534C had both wings clipped for racing in the 1921 Aerial Derby. The 534D was a Baby modified for hot climates and was used by a businessman in India. All 534s were Green engined single seaters.
The Type 543 Baby was a two-seater with a 2 ft 6 in (76 cm) fuselage extension. It too was initially Green-powered, but in 1926, this was replaced by an 80 hp (60 kW) ADC Cirrus 1 air-cooled upright in-line engine.
The final version of the Baby was the type 554 Antarctic Baby built as photographic aircraft for the 1921-2 Shackleton-Rowett Expedition to Antartica. This had a 80 hp (60 kW) le Rhone engine, raised tailplanes, rounded wingtips and tubular steel struts replacing rigging wires to avoid the problems of tensioning rigging wires with gloved hands. Like the Water Baby, it was a floatplane.
By far, the strangest Baby was one modified by H.G. Leigh in 1920. The original wing were removed and instead the aircraft had a short, conventional, shoulder-mounted wing, bearing projecting, full-span ailerons. Above it was a strongly forward staggered stack of six very narrow chord wings of about the same span as the lower wing, hence each of very high aspect ratio and therefore with low induced drag. This complicated structure added about 60 lb (30 kg) to the weight. This "Venetian blind" wing design was proposed and previously explored by Horatio Phillips in the last decade of the 19th century.
Operational History
The Babies were raced in the early 1920s by a variety of pilots but are best remembered for the flights of G-EACQ in the hands of Bert Hinkler. On 31 May 1920 he made a non-stop flight from Croydon to Turin in 9 hours 30 minutes - a flight of 655 mi (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 when he flew the Baby non-stop from Sydney to his home town of Bundaberg 800 mi (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 made the first flight between London and Moscow when the Russian Gwaiter collected his machine from Hamble and flew it home.
The Antarctic Baby Baby (or most of it) accompanied Ernest Shackleton on his final expedition to the Antarctic. Unfortunately, their ship, the Quest, delayed by engine trouble was not able to pick up the missing parts previously transported to Rio de Janeiro and the Avro was not used at the Pole.
Specifications (534 Baby, post-war Green engine)
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 17 ft 6 in (5.34 m)
Wingspan: 25 ft 0 in (7.62 m)
Height: 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m)
Wing area: 180 ft² (16.7 m²)
Empty weight: 610 lb (277 kg)
Loaded weight: 825 lb (374 kg)
Powerplant: 1× post-war Green, 35 hp (26 kw)
Performance
Maximum speed: 80 mph (129 km/h)
Cruise speed: 70 mph (113 km/h)
Range: 200 mi (332 km)
Rate of climb: 500 ft/min (2.5 m/s)
The Baby, first practical light aircraft produced in Great Britain after WW I, was a conventional single-seat biplane featuring the traditional Avro circular rudder. Eight of these machines were built in the Avro works at Hamble, each and everyone playing its part in laying sure foundations for the light aircraft movement which came in later years.
The prototype K-131 was fitted with the identical 35 hp Green water-cooled engine that had been fitted in Alliott Verdon-Roe's famous 1910 Triplane and, despite its age, brought the Baby to victory in the handicap section of the Aerial Derby in June 1919, followed a month later by an outright win in the Victory Trophy Race.
To emphasize that it was no low-powered freak, Avro test pilot H.A. Hamersley flew it non-stop from Hounslow Heath to Brussels, Belgium in 2 hr 50 min in August 1919, afterwards going on to demonstrate it at the Amsterdam Exhibition.
During a stunt-flying session with the Avro joy-riding campaign at seaside resorts later in the year, the markings were changed to G-EACQ, and on the last day of the following May, H.J. Hinkler flew it non-stop from Croydon, over the Alps, to Turin, Italy in 9.5 hours.
After exhibition at the 1920 Olympia Aero Show and participation in the Aerial Derby, Hinkler shipped it to Australia, and on April 11, 1931 flew 800 mls (1,287 km) non-stop from Sydney to Bundaberg in 9 hr to set up an Australian long-distance record. A few weeks later, after a forced landing on a beach in tropical rain, it was towed 16 mls (26 km) to Newcastle by a horse-team, and in 1936 was still flying as VH-UCQ.
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