The Avro Type 621 Tutor is a two-seat British radial-engined
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
from the interwar period. It was a simple but rugged basic
trainer that was used by the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
as well as many other air arms worldwide.
Design and development
The Avro Model 621 was designed by
Roy Chadwick
Roy Chadwick, CBE, FRSA, FRAeS (30 April 1893 – 23 August 1947) was an aircraft design engineer for the Avro Company.
Born at Marsh Hall Farm, Farnworth, Widnes, the son of the mechanical engineer Charles Chadwick, he was the chief designer f ...
as an Avro private venture metal replacement for the
Avro 504. Conceived as a light initial pilot trainer, the biplane design featured heavily staggered equal-span, single-bay wings; the construction was based on steel tubing (with some wooden components in the wing ribs) with
doped linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...
covering. A conventional, fixed divided main undercarriage with tailskid was used in all but the latest aircraft, which had a tailwheel.
The Model 621 was powered either by a 155 hp (116 kW)
Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose
The Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose is a British five-cylinder radial aero engine produced by Armstrong Siddeley. Developed in the mid-1920s it was used in the Hawker Tomtit trainer and Parnall Peto seaplane amongst others. With a displacement ...
or
Armstrong Siddeley Lynx
The Armstrong Siddeley Lynx is a British seven-cylinder aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. Testing began in 1920 and 6,000 had been produced by 1939. In Italy Alfa Romeo built a licensed version of this engine named the Alfa Romeo ...
IV (180 hp/130 kW) or IVC (240 hp/179 kW) engine; later Lynx-powered models had the engine enclosed in a
Townend ring cowling. The Mongoose-powered version was called the 621 Trainer and the more numerous Lynx-engined aircraft the Tutor. The Tutor also differed by having a more rounded rudder.
The first flight of the prototype G-AAKT was in September 1929, piloted by Avro chief test pilot Captain Harry Albert "Sam" Brown.
Operational history
![Avro Tutor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Avro_Tutor._Gosport._21-05-1937_MOD_45130346.jpg)
Production was started against an order for three Tutors from the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...
and 21 Trainers from the Royal Air Force. The RAF required a replacement for the wooden
Avro 504, and after three years of trials against other machines such as the
Hawker Tomtit
The Hawker Tomtit is a British training biplane from the late 1920s.
Design and development
The Royal Air Force in 1927 required a replacement for their current elementary trainers, the elderly Avro 504Ns. They specified that the power plant sh ...
it was adopted as their basic trainer, supplanting the 504 in 1933 and remaining in this role until 1939. As well as the first batch of 21 Trainers, a total of 381 Tutors and 15 Avro 646 Sea Tutors were eventually ordered by the RAF. RAF units to operate the type in quantity included the
Royal Air Force College, the
Central Flying School and Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 Flying Training Schools.
Subsequently, the Model 621 achieved substantial foreign sales. A.V. Roe and Co exported 29 for the Greek Air Force, six for the Royal Canadian Air Force, five for the
Guangxi
Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...
AF, three for the Irish AF (where it was known as the Triton) and two for each of the South African and Polish AFs. In addition 57 were licence-built in South Africa, and three licence-built by the Danish Naval Shipyard.
![Avro 621 Tutor K3215 Shuttleworth ABIN 15](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Avro_621_Tutor_K3215_Shuttleworth_ABIN_15.06.68_edited-2.jpg)
A total of 30 Tutors were exported to the Greek Air Force and at least 61 were licence-built in Greece by
KEA
The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings ...
. A number of Greek Tutors was incorporated in combat squadrons after Greece's entrance in WWII, used as army cooperation aircraft.
Known for its good handling, the type was often featured at air shows. Over 200 Avro Tutors and five Sea Tutors remained in RAF service at the beginning of the Second World War.
The 621 was designed as a military trainer and few reached the civil registers. In the 1930s, in addition to ten prototypes and demonstrators, two were used by
Alan Cobham's ''Flying Circus'' and two trainers were retired from the RAF into private use. One 621 was used from new by Australian National Airways. After the war another four ex-RAF 621s appeared on the civil register.
Variants
;Avro 621 Trainer (Mongoose powered)
:Two-seat primary training aircraft.
;Avro 621 Tutor (Lynx powered)
:Two-seat primary training aircraft.
;Avro 621 Tutor II
:One aircraft was modified into a two-bay biplane.
;Avro 623
:Three-seat version of the Type 621 Tutor upgraded for use in Tanganyika as aerial survey aircraft. Three were built between May and December 1930 and issued to the Director of Surveys of Tanganyika. Powered by a 240 hp Armstrong-Siddeley Lynx IV.
;Avro 646 Sea Tutor
:Two-seat seaplane fitted with twin floats, 15 built
Operators
;
*
Czechoslovak Air Force pilots operated at least one aircraft in
310 Fighter Squadron RAF.
;
*
Royal Danish Navy operated five aircraft.
;
*
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
operated six aircraft.
;
*
Chinese Nationalist Air Force
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
(Kwangsi Airforce ) operated five aircraft.
;
*
Iraqi Air Force operated three aircraft.
;
*
Irish Air Corps operated three aircraft.
;
*
Hellenic Air Force operated about 90 aircraft.
;
*
Polish Air Force
The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...
received two aircraft.
;
*
South African Air Force operated 60 aircraft.
;
*
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
received 417 aircraft.
*
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...
Surviving aircraft
G-AHSA was used for communication duties during the Second World War, struck off December 1946 and purchased by Wing Commander Heywood. After suffering engine failure in the early stages of the filming of ''
Reach for the Sky
''Reach for the Sky'' is a 1956 British biographical film about aviator Douglas Bader, based on the 1954 biography of the same name by Paul Brickhill. The film stars Kenneth More and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. It won the BAFTA Award for Bes ...
'', it was purchased by the
Shuttleworth Collection
The Shuttleworth Collection is a working aeronautical and automotive collection located at the Old Warden Aerodrome, Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England. It is the oldest in the world and one of the most prestigious, due to the variety of old a ...
and restored to flying condition.
The Shuttleworth Collection – Avro Tutor
www.shuttleworth.org Retrieved: 8 April 2010
Up to the end of 2003, G-AHSA was still flying as K3215 in RAF trainer yellow. Since January 2004 it has flown painted as K3241 in the colours of the Central Flying School. (The real K3241 built in 1933, served RAF College Cranwell
Cranwell is a village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is part of the civil parish of Cranwell and Byard's Leap and is situated approximately north-west from Sleaford and south-east from the city and county town o ...
, until transferred to the CFA in 1936.)
Specifications (Tutor)
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Halley, J.J. ''Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000 to K9999''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, 1976. .
* Jackson, A.J. ''Avro Aircraft since 1908, 2nd edition''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1990. .
* Jenks, Roy. "RAF Piston Trainers: No. 4: Avro Tutor". '' Aeroplane Monthly'', Vol. 7, No. 3, March 1979. pp. 142–147.
* Thetford. O. ''Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918–57''. London: Putnam, 1957.
* Vančata, Pavel. "Cechoslováci v zahraničním odboji". ''Revi (bi-monthly magazine) #65.'' Ostrava-Poruba: REVI Publications, 2006. ISSN 1211-0744 (Czech language).
External links
Shuttleworth Collection, Avro Tutor details
{{Authority control
1920s British military trainer aircraft
Tutor
TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1929