Avro D

The Avro D was an early British biplane produced by the Avro company during the final years of World War I. Designed in 1917 as a lightweight, low‑cost trainer, the D evolved from Avro’s pre‑war experimental types and shared the same wood‑and‑fabric construction as its predecessor, the Avro 504. Powered by a 100‑hp Gnome rotary engine, it featured a 30‑ft wingspan, single‑bay wings with slight stagger, and an open cockpit that accommodated a student and an instructor side by side. The aircraft’s simple rigging and robust undercarriage made it well suited to the rough fields used for pilot instruction at Royal Flying Corps training stations.

Although only a few hundred D models were built before the Armistice halted production, the type proved crucial in rapidly expanding Britain’s pool of qualified pilots. Its straightforward handling characteristics gave novices confidence and helped standardise training curricula that later influenced post‑war civil aviation schools. The Avro D’s legacy lies in demonstrating how a modest, purpose‑built trainer could accelerate pilot throughput, a concept that informed later designs such as the Avro 504K and set a template for interwar training aircraft worldwide.