Martinsyde A.D.C. 1, Martinsyde A.D.C. Nimbus & Martinsyde F.4A

The Martinsyde A.D.C.1 was a development of the Martinsyde F.4 Buzzard made by the Aircraft Disposal Company that bought Martinsyde's stores when it went into bankruptcy in 1922.
John Kenworthy decided to fit an Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engine delivering 380hp of power into the airframe of a regular Buzzard and retaining the original armament of two 0.303in Vicker Machine guns in the front. The first prototype flown for the first time on 11th October 1924 and it took part in the 1925 and 1926 King's Cup Races. It attracted some foreign interest when Latvia's Air Force ordered eight airplanes in 1926 that were delivered the same year. At least two of them were still active in 1938.
The Martinsyde F.4A was a two-seater conversion of the Buzzard that most of them served with the Spanish Aeronáutica Naval and Aeronáutica Naval Republicana (Naval Aeronautics and Republican Naval Aeronauticrespectively). They were bought in 1921 and assigned to the El Prat pilots school, in Barcelona and later, they were assigned to the San Javier aeronaval base, in south-eastern Spain. They were in active trainer role until 1936 when the Spanish Civil War started.
The Martinsyde A.D.C. Nimbus was a further development of the A.D.C.1 made by John

The Martinsyde ADC Nimbus

Kenworthy using a 330hp Nimbus six-inline water-cooled engine. It was basically the same airframe of the Buzzard with a modified vertical tail, a horn-balanced rudder and revised aft fuselage decking. It was going to be armed with the typical pair of 0.303in Vickers Machine guns but they never were installed. Two prototypes were completed in 1926 which took part in the King's Cup race of that same year and, one year later the first prototype was modified with faired undercarriage legs and cylinder head fairings. It didn't attract any interest and therefore no orders were placed. As we couldn't find any side drawings of blueprints of this airplane, we left it undrawn.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinsyde_Buzzard
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/martinsyde_adc-1.php
3. http://www.aviationcorner.net/gallery.asp?pg=45&fp=37&airline=Espa%F1a%20-%20Arma%20A%E9rea%20Armada&sort_order=votes&set_lang=true (translated)
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro 504K European Users, part two

Now's the time for the second part of the European users of the Avro 504K.

• Ireland: The Irish Air Corps had six of them from 1922 until 1932. Further details are unknown.
• Latvia: The Latvian air force adquired two Avro 504K in 1924 and 1925 which were active until 1930 when they were replaced by the German Udet U.12 Flamingo.
• Norway: The Norwegian Army Air Service used some 504K apparently during the 1920 with a modified engine. Further details are, unknown.
• Poland: The Polish Air Force had one in inventory during the 1920s. 
• Russian Republic (Whites): Apparently one was used by the Slavonic-British Air Corps during the Northern Campaign of the Russian Civil War. Interestingly enough, it was used in the recon role, hence the observer machine-gun, instead in the training role.

Sources:

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

2. http://latvianaviation.com/Avro_504K.html

3. http://www.avro504.org/ActualAircraft.html

Ansaldo A.1 Balilla - European users

We keep going with this Italian fighter, this time we cover its' European users, excluding the Polish and Italian users because those two will have their own posts.

The Ansaldo A.1 Balilla was sold to many European countries, the ones covered in this post are:

• Belgium: According to the Belgian Military Aviation archives, one Ansaldo A.1 was in service, with the code "1". Apparently it was in service from some 1920 until 1924 when it was written-off. Some sources claim that one Balilla was displayed in Brussels in order to sale it, but no orders were forthcoming. In anyway it's remarkable to point out that in order to make the return trip of that machine to Paris, it was fitted with a British compass taken from a Belgian airplane. As we couldn't find graphical evidence, the drawing is speculative.
• Greece: Eight Balillas were bought by Turkey in order to use them in their independence war against various European users, among them, Greece. In 1923 a Greek cruiser ship seized an Italian cargo ship bound for Turkey loaded with those airplanes which were retained by the Greeks. However, lacking an appropriate training and maintenance manuals they were never operative. They were used as trainers operating from Tatoi airfield, in Athens.
• Latvia: On August 1922 the Ansaldo operatives which were in Warsaw, selling armament to Poland, concluded a contract with Latvia. The contract stipulated four SVA.10 and A.1 with previssions for more. Those airplanes were to be flight-tested in Riga by Ansaldo crews and, on August 21st the Polish government wrote a letter supporting the qualities of those airplanes. In the end, Latvia bought 13 Balillas, but unfortunately, that success claimed the life of the Tenente Mainardi who spun in at Riga-Spilve airfield when performing low-level acrobatics at a festival held in 1924. The Latvian Balillas were used by a fighter squadron first and by a flying school later.
• USSR: The White Russian army bought some Balillas in order to equip some of their fighter squadrons in 1920 but they weren't delivered until 1922 when 18 airplanes arrived by ship via Odessa which was already under Bolshevik control, and were assigned to the Independent Navy Fighter Sections (IAO, later known as OMIAO) at Novy Petergof (2nd IAO) and Odessa (1st IAO) which were organized in the traditional Russian system of six operational aircrafts and two in reserve. The last two Balillas were used by the Moscow School for Advanced Pilots until 1925. It's also known that the 1st IAO used the Balillas from 1923 to 1925 and some accidents were, unfortunately, suffered by various pilots. Even if the data about those accidents are scant, it's known that the No.2 crashed on 7th July 1924 while piloted by Akulinichev and the No. 3 crashed on 26th May 1924 killing its' pilot, SF Paenkov. The type continued in service until 1927 with the 2nd IAO when it was retired from active service.  

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansaldo_A.1_Balilla
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
3. Windsock Datafile 88 - Ansaldo A.1 Balilla

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