| 531 Spider and 538 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Avro |
| Designer | Clifton Britt |
| Number built | 2 |
| History | |
| First flight | April 1918 |
TheAvro 531 Spider was a prototypeFirst World War Britishsesquiplanefighter aircraft built byAvro.
The Spider was a sesquiplane with a largely conventional configuration, but it usedWarren truss-typeinterplane struts, hence the appellation "Spider". In tests, the aircraft demonstrated exceptional performance, handling, and pilot visibility however the time it flew, the War Office had already selected theSopwith Snipe for mass production.
A second, more refined version, theAvro 531A, was apparently never completed, but some of its components seem to have been used to build a derivative, theAvro 538. This had standard interplane struts and was intended as a racing aircraft. It was never used for this purpose, however, because it was discovered that it had a faulty wing spar, so the Avro firm used it as a hack instead from May 1919 to September 1920.[1]
Data from Avro Aircraft since 1908[2]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
1 × fixed, forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm)Vickers machine gun
