The final two-seat fighter derivative of the basic Avro 504 design, the Avro 527 was built for the RFC and flown for the first time early in 1916 with a 150hp Sunbeam Nubian eight-cylinder water-cooled engine. The mainplanes, undercarriage and tail assembly were basically similar to those of the Avro 504, but the fuselage differed markedly from that of the earlier aircraft. Proposed armament consisted of a single free-mounted 7.7mm Lewis gun in the rear cockpit. The Avro 527 displayed a poor climb rate and the pilot's forward view was seriously impaired by the twin exhaust stacks of the Nubian engine. Only one prototype was completed, and development was discontinued during the course of 1916, a version with a longer-span wing, the 527A, being discarded at the same time.