Avro 538

The Avro 538 was a single-seat British biplane built by Avro in a single example and most probably assembled from parts of the Avro 531A, a machine whose basic components Avro had made but never joined into an aeroplane. It differed from the basic Avro 531 in having wings of equal span, normal wing bracing and a greater gap between the upper wing and the fuselage. It was first meant as a racing aircraft, but the main spar quickly proved too weak for that purpose. Instead, from May 1919 to September 1920 the machine served as a communications aircraft with the Avro Transport Company, a subsidiary of Avro.