The Little Plane That Flew From England To Australia | Avro Avian [Aircraft Overview #31]

Video from the channel Rex's Hangar about Avro, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:19. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Avro Avian, a two-seat light aircraft from the twenties. Its commercial success was modest compared to the de Havilland Moth, but it set several solo flight records.

The prototype, the Avro 581 registered G-EBOV, was built from an Avro 576 autogyro fuselage for the 1926 Lympne light aeroplane trials, with a 70 hp Genet engine. Herbert Hinkler flew it in the competition, bought it and kept modifying it. In 1927 he flew it from England to Latvia. On 7 February 1928 he took off from Croydon bound for Australia and reached Darwin on 22 February: the first solo flight between the two countries. The production version was named the Avro 594.

Lady Heath flew an Avian III from South Africa to England in 1928 and then sold it to Amelia Earhart, who used it to cross North America there and back. Guy Menzies made the first solo flight from Australia to New Zealand in 1931 with an Avian 616. In January 1929, Wilfrid May and Vic Horner carried diphtheria medicine from Edmonton to Fort Vermilion. There were floatplane (605) and low-wing (625) versions. The last ones were built in 1933 and Hinkler's prototype is preserved at the Queensland Museum.