Avro Athena

what is it?

The Avro 701 Athena is a British advanced trainer aircraft built by Avro in the late 1940s. It was designed to replace the North American Harvard in the Royal Air Force, but was bought only in small numbers, the competing Boulton Paul Balliol being preferred.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 12.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 471 km/htop speed
• size 3,688 kgmax take-off weight
• built 22made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 78 years ago, in 1948.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.6× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 12.2 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1948

introduced

1950

number built

22

role

trainer

makers

Avro

engines

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin 35

crew

2

length

11.4 m

wingspan

12.2 m

height

3.9 m

max take-off weight

3,688 kg

top speed

471 km/h

cruise speed

359 km/h

range

—

ceiling

8,839 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.