AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 58 / 245

Plate 58 of 245 · Between the wars · Basic trainer

Avro Tutor

Tutor (Avro 621), K3215, painted as K3215 (G-AHSA), the Avro Tutor of the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, the only airworthy survivor of the type, painted since its re-covering in the mid-2000s as 'K3241' of the Central Flying School aerobatic team: Avro's two-seat RAF basic trainer of the 1930s, a steel-tube single-bay biplane with N-type interplane and cabane struts, ailerons on all four wings and tandem open cockpits, with a seven-cylinder Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC radial in a polished Townend ring, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail wheel: silver dope with red and white sunray stripes across the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane, polished aluminium nose and side panels, dark green upper decking, type A roundels on the fuselage and under the lower wings, black 'K.3241.' on the fuselage and 'K3241' under the wings and on the red, white and blue rudder, black struts, red wheel discs and a varnished wooden propeller with brass sheaths (shape from a published general-arrangement drawing, checked against photographs of the aircraft).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as K3215 (G-AHSA), the Avro Tutor of the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, the only airworthy survivor of the type, painted since its re-covering in the mid-2000s as 'K3241' of the Central Flying School aerobatic team: Avro's two-seat RAF basic trainer of the 1930s, a steel-tube single-bay biplane with N-type interplane and cabane struts, ailerons on all four wings and tandem open cockpits, with a seven-cylinder Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC radial in a polished Townend ring, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail wheel: silver dope with red and white sunray stripes across the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane, polished aluminium nose and side panels, dark green upper decking, type A roundels on the fuselage and under the lower wings, black 'K.3241.' on the fuselage and 'K3241' under the wings and on the red, white and blue rudder, black struts, red wheel discs and a varnished wooden propeller with brass sheaths (shape from a published general-arrangement drawing, checked against photographs of the aircraft). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (997 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (594 Avian, 621 Tutor); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Tutor (Avro 621), K3215 modelled here.

History

The Tutor

Roy Chadwick designed the Avro 621 as a successor to the company’s own 504, which had trained RAF pilots since the First World War. Where the 504 was wooden, the 621 had a fuselage of welded steel tube and wings with steel spars, all covered in fabric, and it kept two open cockpits in tandem for instructor and pupil. The prototype, G-AAKT, was first flown by Avro’s chief test pilot Sam Brown in September 1929. Early machines had the Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose; the definitive Tutor took the 240 hp Lynx IVC, usually in a Townend drag ring.

The Air Ministry tried the type for some three years against rivals such as the Hawker Tomtit before choosing it as the RAF’s standard basic trainer. It replaced the 504N from 1933 and was flown at the flying training schools, the RAF College at Cranwell and the Central Flying School, whose instructors’ aerobatic team flew Tutors in red and white ‘sunray’ markings at the Hendon displays. The RAF took 381 Tutors, 21 of the earlier Avro Trainers and 15 Sea Tutors on floats for the seaplane school at Calshot.

Some 606 were built, including exports to Greece, Canada, Ireland, China and Poland and licence production in South Africa, Denmark, Greece and, as the PWS-18, in Poland. In the RAF the Tutor gave way to the de Havilland Tiger Moth and the Miles Magister as basic training moved to monoplanes and civilian-run schools, but more than 200 were still on charge in September 1939, and the last served as communications hacks into the early 1940s.

This airframe

Tutor K3215 (G-AHSA)

K3215The airframe modelled

K3215 was delivered to the RAF College at Cranwell in 1933, later served the Central Flying School and finished the war as a communications aircraft. Struck off charge in December 1946, it went on to the civil register as G-AHSA with the Darlington and District Aero Club, and by 1949 it was the only Tutor left. After its owner, Wing Commander Heywood, suffered an engine failure while flying it for Reach for the Sky, the Shuttleworth Collection bought it, and it still flies from Old Warden as the only airworthy Tutor in the world. Since being re-covered in the mid-2000s it has worn the markings of K3241, a Central Flying School aerobatic-team Tutor of the mid-1930s. The model shows it in that scheme, standing tail-down on its wheels and tail wheel: silver dope with red and white sunray stripes across the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane, a polished aluminium nose and Townend ring, dark green upper decking, type A roundels on the fuselage and under the lower wings, ‘K.3241.’ on the fuselage and ‘K3241’ under the wings and on the red, white and blue rudder, black struts, red wheel discs and a varnished wooden propeller with brass sheaths. The shape follows a published general-arrangement drawing and was checked against photographs of the aircraft.

See it at The Shuttleworth Collection

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Tutor in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 245 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.