Avro 504O

The Avro 504O was a floatplane version of the 504N which was made in 1925 at Manchester.
It was powered by the same Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVc which could deliver up to 180hp of power.

• Brazil: The Brazilian Navy bought some 504O to equip some floatplane squadron. Anyway further information is unknown so the drawing should be considered as speculative
• Chile: The Chilean Navy also had some 504O in service, most probably to replace the previous outdated 504L floatplanes. Unfortunately any graphical info seems impossible to find and the drawing should be taken as speculative.
• Greece: The Greek Navy bought some of them in 1925 together with some 504N and they even produced some of their own in the Kratiko Ergostasion Aeroplanon (State Aircraft Factory) in 1935 before switching to the more advanced Avro 621 Tutor. The 504O served, just like the 504N until 1936.
• Japan: The Imperial Japan bought some 504O most probably to replace the outdated 504L. However as we couldn't find precise information, the drawing should be taken as speculative.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_504

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

3. http://greek-war-equipment.blogspot.com.es/2010/10/1920-1936-avro-504.html

4. http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/108778

Avro 504N - American Users

The Avro 504N was an upgraded version of the previous 504K and it was used by the next American users:

• Argentina: Apparently the Argentinean Army Air Service bought at least one of them to test it. Further details are unfortunately, unknown.
• Brazil: The Brazilian Navy's Air Service had some of them under service, most probably replacing the old 504Ks. However as we couldn't find further information, the drawing is speculative.
• Canada: The Royal Canadian Air Force had some 504N in service. Further details are unknown.
• Chile: Apparently it was also used by the Chilean Army Air Service, however any further detail is unknown, so it should be considered as speculative.

Sources:

1. http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/108754

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro 504L

We're back with the enormous variants of the Avro 504, this time with the seaplane recon version of it.

The Avro 504L was a twin-seater recon biplane that flew for the first time on 1919. It was powered by either a 110hp LeRhône 9J, a 130hp Clerget 9B or a 150hp Bentley BR.1 and had the particularity that it wasn't used by the United Kingdom but by some Commonwealth countries and some other users as well.

At least 33 of them were built, being 16 converted from the 504K.
It was used by these countries:

• Australia: It served as the embarked recon airplane on board of both HMAS Australia and HMAS Melbourne Battlecruisers.
• Chile: Apparently the Chilean Naval Aviation some of them during the 1920s. As we couldn't find graphical evidence of this, the drawing is considered as speculative.
• Japan: The Empire of Japan employed some 504L most probably during the 1920s. It was also locally manufactured under license by Nakajima.
• New Zealand: The New Zealand Permanent Air Force employed some of them, during the 1920s too.

Sources:

1. http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/108750

2. http://www.navy.gov.au/aircraft/avro-504l

3. http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3031/object/355965/black-and-white-display-print-of-walsh-brothers-flying-school-avro-504l-h2990-on-the-water-at-missi

4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro 504K - Latin American users, part two

Now's the turn for more latin-american users of the Avro 504K.

• Chile: In 1920 Chile feared that Bolivia wanted their sea access back, they started to rearm themselves. They bought for the Chilean Army: Twenty Airco DH.9 Bombers,  eight RAF SE.5a, twelve Bristol M.1C plus two Avro 504 and three Sopwith Baby, one Felixstowe F.2A, six Short 184 and two Avro 504K for the Chilean navy. They served in the Chilean aviation school.
• Perú: They bought at least three of them during the early 1920s in order to equip their flying schools.
• Uruguay: Uruguayan government bough some 504K which served from 1919 until as late as 1934 in the Escuela Militar de Aviación (Military Aviation School). 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_504

2. http://ivansiminic.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/sucesos-de-1920.html (translated)

3. http://www.insigniamag.com/peru17.html

4. http://www.pilotoviejo.com/avro504k.htm (translated)

5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro 504J

The Avro 504J appeared first in autumn 1916 and this new version was powered by a 100hp Gnome Monosoupape engine. The engine cowling was slightly modified in order to make easier to fit other type of engines.
It was usually called Mono-Avro in the RFC, to which it was destined. It had therefore a comma shaped vertical stabilizer and shorter back ailerons.
As the engines were harder to manufacture, the airplanes were completed as those were completed, that's why many of them ended up being completed as the K model.
It was destined from the very beginning to the training role and it was easy to fly and powerful for it's era. That's why it was the basis for a new training method used by the RAF until the end of the World War II. However, at the end of 1916, Avro was commanded to concentrate their manufacturing efforts on the BE.2c instead of the Avro 504. However, a bit later, the 504J was chosen as the standard RFC trainer and the production was resumed.
It wasn't used only by the United Kingdom but also by the American Expeditionary Forces and also by the Chilean army which, fearing a war against it's neighbours Argentina and Bolivia, rearmed themselves.

Sources:
1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_504 (translated)
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 - Foreign Users

We keep drawing. This time it's the turn for the airplane that, arguably, was the best airplane of the whole Great War.

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 was a British biplane fighter of the first world war.
Given that we are covering the foreign users of this airplane, we are going to center on the S.E.5a model.
The S.E.5a model was an improved version of the initial S.E.5 model. It was powered by a 200hp Hispano-Suiza 8b engine and some of them were powered by a 200hp Wolseley Viper.

It was license built in the USA by the Austin Motor Company and also by Ebehart Aeroplane company.

The countries covered in this entry are:

• Argentina: The Argentine Naval Aviation bought some of them as late as 1927 and used them as advanced trainers.
• Australia: Some SE5a were given to Australia as part of the imperial gift after the end of the Great War and they constituted the backbone of the very early Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). They served until 1929 when they were replaced by the Bristol Bulldog.
• Canada: The Canadian Air Force employed SE.5a together with Sopwith Dolphin in the No.1 fighter squadron. However, as we couldn't fin graphical info, both the colours and registrations are speculative.
• Chile: The Chilean Military Aviation Service bought some SE.5a in 1924 to equip the newly formed 1st Aviation Company.
• Ireland: Apparently one SE.5a served in the Irish Air Corps during the Irish Civil War. It operated from the Fermoy aerodrome, in southern Ireland and was destroyed due to an engine failure. We couldn't find graphical evidence, so the drawing must be considered as speculative.
• Japan: The British Aviation Mission on Japan took one Viper-engined SE.5a to Japan after the armistice in order to serve in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. We couldn't find any graphical info about that airplane so it must be considered as speculative.
• Poland: The Polish Air Force bought at least one ex-RFC from the United Kingdom and was used in the Polish-Soviet war.

Ansaldo SVA - Foreign Users, First Entry

We start a new saga of airplanes!. This time we take a deep look into the Italian Ansaldo SVA.

The Ansaldo SVA was a saga of Italian reconnaissance airplanes designed and employed during The Great War and employed also in many other post-war conflicts.

There were various versions:

• SVA1: Later identification of the SV prototype
• SVA2: Pre-production series of the SVA.
• SVA3: Interceptor version. Powered by an SPA 6A engine. Featured one upper-wing mounted fiat machine-gun. AKA 'SVA Ridotto'
• SVA4: Reconnaissance version. Featuring one Vickers Machine gun on the left side and two photo-cameras.
• SVA.5: Recon-Bombing version. Two side mounted frontal Vickers Machine guns and equipped with bomb racks under the fuselage. Some versions were tested with early radio equipment.
• SVA.6: Purely reconnaissance version of the SVA.5. One wing-mounted Fiat machine gun. Equipped with two cameras.
• SVA.7: Recon/bomber of the SVA.6. Racks for 6 bombs under the fuselage.
• SVA.8: AKA Ansaldo A.201/A.202 Prototype of an armoured ground attack variant. It was powered by an Isotta-Fraschini engine. It was written off from inventory in May 1923.
• SVA.9: Two-Seat trainer of the SVA.5. One of them was modified in order to perform the flight over Vienna with the cockpit of the pilot and the observer reverted.
• SVA.10: Two-seat Reconnaissance version.
• ISVA/SVA Am: Floatplane fighter version (ISVA) or floatplane observation airplane (Am), made on request of the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy)
• SVA AP: AP stands for 'Ansaldo Postale' which was just a regular SVA.5 powered by an V6 Isotta-Fraschini employed as a postal airplane.

Now the users covered in this post are:

• Argentina: Both Ansaldo SVA.5 and SVA.10 were employed by the Argentinean Servicio Aeronáutico del Ejército (Army Aeronautical Service) both in their first two fighter squadrons and their military flying schools. One SVA.5 became very famous after crossing the Andes twice, piloted by the Captain Parodi.
• Bolivia: Apparently some of them were used by the Bolivian Cuerpo de Aviación (Aviation Corps). We couldn't find graphical evidence so the drawing should be considered as speculative. UPDATE: The only Ansaldo SVA (most probably a SVA.5) to flight over Bolivia was the one belonging to Count Aldo Barbaro, one of South America's aviation pioneers. He flew in many occasions from lake Titicaca in Peru, to the city of La Paz, in Bolivia achieving various records within South American flights and was also the first South American aviator to reach 4000m high on a flight from Arequipa, in Peru to Oruro, in Bolivia. During one of those flights that took place on July 1923, his aircraft malfunctioned while he was approaching La Paz and his plane crashed killing him on the spot. Nowadays Count Aldo Barbaro is a hero both for Peru and Bolivia.
  It seems that in May 1920 an Italian officer, named Evaristo Ruffo, assigned to the military mission in Argentina, crossed the Argentino-Bolivian border to offer the Bolivian government five SVA.5 (among other many aircraft) in order to set-up an aviation school. However the deal couldn't be closed so the aircraft weren't delivered.
  Thanks to our follower Bluewarrior for giving us the information and providing us with photos.
• Brazil: It seems that some SVA were used by the Brazilian navy aeronautical service. As we couldn't information about these airplanes under Brazilian command, it's considered as speculative both the colours and the sub-model.
• Chile: The Italian colony in Chile bought an airplane and, when performing a demonstration flight, it crashed off the shore of Valparaiso in 1924.
• Ecuador: During 1921 Italy sent a military mission to Ecuador in order to form new pilots there. They bought together with them, an Ansaldo SVA.10, a Macchi M.18 a SAML S2 and an Aviatik D.I. The Ecuadorian aviation school opened up on July 1922.
• Georgia: During the Russian civil war, the Soviet Red Army invaded Georgia in 1921. It is known that the Georgians had a tiny air corps comprissed of some Sopwith Camel and some other SVA.10. Basing on how the Camel looked like, we have drawn the SVA.10, speculating of course.
• Latvia: The Latvian aviation corps had some SVA.10 in active during 1924 when one of them was sent for four days to the Estonian capital of Tallinn as a diplomatic action in order to improve relations between both countries.

Source (for Aldo Barbaro's history):
1. The comments and photos left by our follower, Bluewarrior. Thanks to him.
2. http://aviationpioneers.blogspot.com/2010/05/count-aldo-barbaro.html

SPAD S.VII - First entry, foreign users vol. 1

We start this series of entries with another heavyweight of the Great War: The SPAD S.VII

The SPAD S.VII was the first of a successful saga of French biplane fighters. It was designed by Louis Béchereau and was produced by the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD) (Society for aviations and it's derivatives). It was renowned for being a sturdy and hard to destroy airplane with good climbing and diving characteristics. It was also good as a gun platform although apparently it was too heavy and less maneouvrable than the contemporaneous Nieuport fighters. Many famous WW1 aces like Guynemer, Baracca or Pentland flew it.

As it was widely used both in the Great war and in the aftermaths it suffered many small field modifications, being the most notorious one the inclusion of skis by the Russian DUX factory.

This entry covers the usage by the next countries:

• Argentina: Bought two aircraft for evaluation purposes.
• Belgium: Widely used by their national aviation corps (Aviation Militaire) during World War I and the post-war period. Most precisely it was used by the 5éme and 10éme escadrilles (5th and 10th squadrons).
• Brazil: Used by their national military aviation service (Serviço de Aviação Militar) in 1920.
• Chile: Another evaluation-only user. The colours are speculative as we couldn't find any photographic or visual evidence.
• Czechoslovakia: One of the main post-war users. It constituted the backbone of the very early Czechoslovak Army Air Force (Československé Letectvo) and some of them were employed during the brief Polish-Czechoslovak war of 1919.
• Estonia: It's been said that some captured ex-Russian airplanes were among the first airplanes that formed the Estonian aviation regiment in the aftermath of the Great War. Just like Chile we couldn't find any supporting evidence and therefore the colours are speculative
• Finland: Finland used DUX-built airplanes in both versions, with skis and without them. However they didn't see action during the Finnish civil war of 1918, as far as we know.
• Imperial Germany: Germany captured various airplanes during 1917, mostly from the French SPA 31 unit and SPA 65. Most of the SPA 31 retained the unit insignia when flying with their new German-owners.