AVRO 500 & 502

[Monochrome photograph showing the penultimate Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Avro 500 as delivered to Farnborough. It was later given the serial No. 448]

By the end of 1912 A. V. Roe and Co. had 12 aircraft on order for the Royal Flying Corps as well as several others for private and overseas customers. Alliott thus felt assured that the company had become well established but that the current aircraft designations such as the Type E, F and G etc. did not reflect well on his products. He therefore started a new system giving the Type E, his current most successful machine, the imposing title Avro 500. This system was to continue with the company's subsequent products for the next 50 years.

[Monochrome photograph of the second version of the Avro 500 the single seat Avro 502]

AVRO 501

In October 1912 Alliott and his team designed an enlarged version of the Avro 500 powered by a 100 hp (75 kW) 14 cylinder Gnome rotary engine and fitted it with a large central float.

This machine was given the designation Avro 501. Unfortunately it was a failure as a floatplane but was finally accepted as a landplane and remained in Royal Naval Air Service until February 1916.