Design and Development
The Avro 511 was designed as a fast scout for military use at a time (1913) when the role of aircraft in war was barely emerging. It was a single-seat wood and canvas biplane. The fuselage was of square cross-section and carried Avro's characteristic "comma" rudder, with no fin. The wings were heavily staggered and had pronounced sweepback, both features intended to improve stability. They were not constructed with the usual span-length spars, but rather using a cellular approach. The interplane struts were not the usual single piece shaped rods, but built up multi-piece, wide chord structures covered in canvas. There were conventional midsection "N" type struts between fuselage and the upper wing. Ailerons were carried on both upper and lower wings. Most unusually for its time, the inboard lower wing featured landing flaps, so the 511 landed at a sedate 35 mph (56 km/h).
The single rotary Gnome Monosoupape was neatly cowled, though this was later modified to improve cooling. Mainwheels were mounted on a single axle plus centre skid undercarriage and there was a tailskid.
Later in 1914 the 511 was modified with a new pair of wings with no sweepback and V form (cranked axle), skidless main undercarriage, becoming the Avro 514.
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