On 16th April 1916 the pilot of this aeroplane was on a training flight with the RNAS Flying School when it suffered an engine failure, he made a good forced landing near Yarm and escaped further damage. It was repaired on site and left for Redcar the following day.
Pilot - FSL William Edgar Robinson RNAS.
William Robinson was born in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada on 8th December 1888. He gained his Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate (Cert.No.Am367) at the Wright School, Dayton, Ohio, USA on 7th December 1915 and was appointed to the RNAS while still in Canada. He was posted to Europe and appears to have arrived at RNAS Redcar on 27th December 1915 where he served until 26th April 1916. He left England for service overseas in March 1917. 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 aircraft 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. He was repatriated in February 1919 and transferred to the Unemployed List in July 1919.
Avro 504 1470 was built by Brush EE Company Ltd of Loughborough and was delivered to RNAS Redcar on 10th December 1915, it was test flown and accepted there on 16th December 1915. It force landed at Yarm on 16th April 1916 due to engine failure. It 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 aeroplane was again repaired only to be written off in a second crash at Redcar on 8th May 1916 and was deleted from stock on 19th May 1916.
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