On 16th April 1916 the pilot of this aircraft was on a training flight when he suffered an engine failure, he made a good
forced landing near Yarm and the aircraft escaped further damage. The aircraft was repaired on site and left for Redcar the
following day.
Pilot - Flight Sub-Lt William Edgar Robinson RNAS, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
William Robinson was born in Selkirk, Manitoba in 1888. He gained his Royal Aero Club American Aviator's Certificate (Cert.No.367) at the Wright School, Dayton, Ohio, USA on 7th December 1915 and appointed to the RNAS while still in Canada on 28th December 1915.
On 8th July 1917 he was the pilot of a FBA Flying Boat on an anti-submarine patrol off Malta when the aircraft suffered engine failure, after ditching his aircarft drifted for several days before washing ashore near Tripoli, Libya. He was captured by the Turks and made a PoW.
He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre on 29th August 1917, while a PoW. Post-WW1 it is believed that he returned home to Canada though nothing more is known about him.
Avro 504 1470 was built by Brush EE Co Ltd of Loughborough and delivered to RNAS Redcar on 10th December 1915, it was test flown and accepted there on 16th December 1915. The aircraft was repaired on site and the next day it took off from Yarm to fly back to Redcar where upon it crashed on landing ripping off the undercarriage. The aircraft was again repaired only to be written off in a crash at Redcar on 8th May 1916 and was deleted from stock on 19th May 1916.