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 The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, but was bought only in small numbers, the competing Boulton Paul Balliol being preferred.

Design and development

The Athena was designed to meet the requirements of

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

Specification T.7/45 for a three-seat advanced trainer powered by a

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

engine for the RAF. The Athena was an all-metal low-winged monoplane, with a side-by-side cockpit. The Air Ministry rethought its requirements in 1947 and replaced the original specification with Specification T.14/47, which specified the use of a

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British Coolant#Liquids, liquid-cooled V12 engine, V-12 Reciprocating engine, piston aero engine of 27-litre (1,650 cu in) Engine displacement, capacity. Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce designed the engine an ...

35 piston engine, large stocks of which were held in store. Despite the change in specification, the first three prototypes were of the turboprop-powered Athena T.1, the first of which, powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Mamba engine, flew on 12 June 1948 at Woodford Aerodrome. The Merlin-powered Athena T.2 first flew on 1 August 1948,Thetford, Owen. Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918-57, 1st edition London: Putnam, 1957. and was evaluated against the similar Boulton Paul Balliol. A small production run of 15 Athenas was ordered for the RAF, but the Balliol was preferred, and no further Athenas were ordered.

Operational history

The 15 production Athenas were used by the RAF from 1950 for armament training at the RAF Flying College at RAF Manby.Taylor, M.J.H., ed. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. London: Jane's Publishing Company, 1989. . A single aircraft was loaned back to Avro and given the civil registration ''G-ALWA'' for a demonstration tour of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. No sales resulted and it was returned to the RAF.

Variants

;Athena T.Mk.1 :Turboprop-powered prototype. One Armstrong Siddeley ASM.3 Mamba engine. Two built. ;Athena T.Mk.1A :Single prototype powered by Rolls-Royce RDa.1 Dart engine. Second prototype to fly. ;Athena T.Mk.2 :Trainer to Spec. T.14/47 powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin 35. Four prototypes plus 15 production.

Operators

; *

** Aircraft Instrument Experimental Unit, Martlesham Heath (one T2 in 1951) ** Central Flying School, Little Rissington (two T2s 1949-1950) ** Empire Test Pilot's School, Farnborough (one T2 development aircraft) ** Royal Aircraft Establishment (two aircraft) ** RAF College at Manby (ten aircraft 1950-1955)

Accidents and incidents

Two of the 22 aircraft were lost in flying accidents: * T2 ''VR569'' of the Aircraft Instrument Experimental Unit was written off at Wilby, Suffolk on 27 June 1951. Aircraft broke up in spiral dive after loss of control in cloud, two crew killed. * T2 ''VR570'' crashed before delivery on 20 March 1950.

Specifications (Athena T.2)

References

{{British military aircraft since World War II 1940s British military trainer aircraft

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft