Avro 'F' 1912 British High Capacity Airliner

Alliot Verdon Roe, who had founded A. V. Roe & Co. in 1910, wanted to build a plane in which the passengers could be completely protected from the elements. This project resulted in two planes, a monoplane and a biplane. Both aircraft had completely enclosed fuselages with celluloid vision panels for the pilot and crew of three.

Note: The extremely small vertical tail. This was possible due to the wide(vertically) and flat fuselage aft of the center of gravity. With a little flatter lower surface, the Avro's fuselage could have aquired additional lift

Excuse me... but aren't those wheels a bit splayed out??

Manufacturer: A.V. Roe Co. Engine: Viale 5-cylinder radial. 40 hp Wingspan: 29 ft Length: 23 ft Height: 7 ft 6 in Wing area: 158 sq ft Weight (loaded): 800 lbs Speed: 65 mph Passengers-16 perhaps Crew-4 maybe Frame: spruce, ash, steel tube Covering: aluminum, linen

The monoplane, the Avro F, was the first to be built and also the world's first cabin aircraft to fly. Successful tests took place on May 1, 1912, at Brooklands, although critics had predicted that the pilot's visibility would be totally obscured by oil and exhaust fumes from the engine. Successful flights continued until, on September 13, the Avro F was damaged beyond repair.
His Majesty's Royal crash analysis experts for the most part, (although remember that this was only 1912!), suspected that the aeroplane might have been overweight by about 15 passengers, three crew members (including wine steward), three corgies, and one picnic basket.

Thanks to Guido for his design of the 'F'

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Purchase Information $3.50 Your Avro F 1912 Airliner comes in a large and small version.The large has a wingspan of about 10 inches, and is one of the easier FG models to build. Plans for a stick model of the Avro F are also included (see below). Back to Between the Wars

What people say... 1912, and look how far the world of aviation has come since the Wright brothers first flight 13 years ago. Well, most of the aviation world--except the Wright brothers. Model and photos and writeup by model' Pal, John Freeman Edwin Verdon Roe left his home in England at 14 and headed to Canada. He sort of bounced around from job to job and country to country until he fell in love with the notion of flying. Back in England now, he built his first successful plane, a triplane, where he lived--under a bridge. He was so poor he covered the wings with packing paper because he couldn't afford cloth. But it did fly, and he was on a roll. By 1912 Roe had the silly notion that folks didn't really need to be outside in the cold in order to fly an airplane. He told his incredibly talented draftsman, Roy Chadwick, what he had in mind and Roy drew it up. A tiny plane weighing only 550lbs./250kg with room for fuel and one large pilot, it was a wonderful collection of the old and new. Roe hung on to the old wing warping thing, but totally enclosed the cabin in an aluminum skin with celluliod windows (the rest of the plane was covered with linen). The skeptics hooted--for sure the pilot would not be able to see anything. Well, he could, and the plane flew just fine. Notice that the tail skid is attached also to the bottom of the rudder--obviously a steerable tail skid. Surely there weren't that many planes around with that feature! I found a couple of references on the web that say not only was this the first plane with an enclosed cabin, but also the first monoplane. The enclosed cabin bit I'm buying, but not the first monoplane part--I know there were several successful monoplanes years before this. Eventually the plane was destroyed in a wreck, but Roe was moving on. Another great little model from Fiddlers Green / John Freeman Stick model plans(above) included with Avro F cardmodel Fact: The 1912 biplane Avro G was the second British aircraft definitely known to have recovered from a spin. Barf bags having been yet invented, photo above shows the crew cleaning up.