G-AUDR Avro
504K
(c/n AAEC/D9)
Established in 1919 by H. E. Broadsmith
and N. Love the Australian Aircraft and Engineering
Company (AAEC)
produced six Avro 504K training biplanes for the R.A.A.F. and seven for
civilian use.
AAEC was Australia's first aircraft manufacturing concern. The
504K seen above
in this image courtesy of
the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland collection was one
of the civilian
editions and was first registered to M.G.B. Cox of Sydney in
1922. It was sold
in December 1923
Chapman and Chapman Aerial Services and then to
E.R. Videan and E.W.
Beckman of Brisbane (the
owners of Ascot Garage?) who installed a 150 hp
Curtiss K6 engine
in place of the
original 100 hp Sunbeam Dyak (must
have given it quite a lift in
performance).
The image below is from
the Horrie Miller collection, via the National Library of Australia and
was taken in front of
the Ascot Garage hangar for its opening at Eagle Farm Aerodrome in
1923.
Both shots illustrate
the new engine fitting. Sold to Airways. Ltd of Sydney in
May of 1925, it
was
wrecked by a gale at Moora Valley shortly afterward and was stricken
from the
register on
17 June 1926.