Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Single-seat touring biplane

Power Plant:

One 26 kw (35 hp) Green four-cylinder in-line liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The Avro 534 Baby was a conventional single-seat biplane built in  1919 at Hamble in Hampshire, UK where nine Baby aircraft in all were built at the Avro facility. The prototype, which was un-registered, had a 26 kw (35 hp) Green engine and was known as the Type D but crashed at Hamble on 10 May 1919. The engine was salvaged and fitted to a second aircraft, which carried the test registration K-131. It won the handicap section of the Aerial Derby in June 1919. In August that year it was flown non-stop from Hounslow Heath in Greater London to Brussels in Belgium in 2 hrs 50 mins. It was then used for demonstrations at the Amsterdam Exhibition in The Netherlands, and became G-EACQ with H J ‘Bert’ Hinkler. Later it was registered VH-UCQ (c/n 534/1) in Australia shortly before retirement.

The history of this aircraft is quite remarkable. On 13 January 1920 it crashed and was rebuilt for the well-known Australian aviator, H J ‘Bert’ Hinkler, who set out for Australia in it on 31 May 1920. After a 1,040 km (646 miles) non-stop flight over the Alps to Turin in Italy in 9½ hrs he had to return to the United Kingdom because a war in Syria at the time was obstructing his safe passage. He then had the aircraft shipped to Australia, arriving in time for the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, NSW.

On 11 April 1921 Hinkler flew the aircraft 1,287 km (800 miles) non-stop to Bundaberg, QLD, where he landed and then taxied up to the front gate of his parent’s home. On 23 April he left for Sydney in easy stages but, on 27 April, he was forced down on a beach at Anna Bay, north of Newcastle, NSW where strong winds blew the aircraft over onto its back. A team of five horses from a nearby farm was used to right the aircraft and tow it to Stockton from where it was shipped to Sydney. It was subsequently sold to Harry E Broadsmith of the Australian Aircraft & Engineering Co Ltd (AA&EC). Mr Broadsmith then fitted the aircraft with floats and operated it from Botany Bay for a short period in 1922 for the filming of a movie.

After that period the Baby had a number of owners until it was retired in 1931 and placed in storage. However, reports indicate it may have been flown around Hamilton, VIC in 1936. Eventually the aircraft was rediscovered stored in Melbourne, VIC and obtained by the Queensland Museum where, after restoration, it was placed on display as G-EACQ alongside Hinkler’s Avro Avian.

In 2007 the Bert Hinkler Commemorative Museum in Bundaberg, QLD contracted with Geoff Reichelt to construct a non-airworthy replica of Hinkler’s Avro Baby for its museum, this being completed late in that year and being placed on display when completed. Eventually the original G-EACQ was obtained by the Bert Hinkler Museum in Bundaberg from the Queensland Museum and both it and the replica are now on display.

Of the other Babys built a variant known as the type 534A Water Baby was fitted with floats, and the 534B had a plywood fuselage, tapered ailerons and was entered in the 1920 Aerial Derby. One example in the 1921 Aerial Derby in the United Kingdom averaged 118.55 km/h (73.67 mph) until forced down at Brooklands in Surrey, later being fitted with a 45 kw (60 hp) Cirrus I engine.

Of the remaining production Babys, the type 534C was built for racing and had a reduced span of the lower wing; whereas the 534D had steel engine bearers, a larger radiator, and was exported to India. One was supplied to a Russian pilot, making the first flight from London to Moscow in May 1922.

The type 554 Antarctic Baby, which was built in 1921 with a 60 kw (80 hp) Le Rhone rotary engine for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s South Pole Expedition, was used for photo reconnaissance.