Flight, July 1925

THE ORIGINAL AVRO TRIPLANE FOR SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM

   THE presentation, by A. Y. Roe & Co., Ltd., of the original Avro triplane to the South Kensington Museum, where it will be kept for the nation for all time, brings back some interesting recollections of its constructor, that pioneer of aviation Mr. A. V. Roe.
   The first flight ever made over British soil was made by A. V. Roe, in a machine of his own construction. Appropriately enough, Roe, we are reminded, obtained his first incentive to design aircraft from watching birds in flight. During three years he spent in the merchant service as a marine engineer he studied the seagulls and the albatross, and on his return commenced to make model gliders.
   From 1906 onwards, Mr. Roe devoted all his time and savings to aviation. In 1907 he won the first Daily Mail prize for flying models and constructed a full-size flying machine, which he took to the Brooklands motor track. He was kept waiting many months for a 24 h.p. Antoinette engine he had ordered from France, and in the interval it was his practice to prevail upon sympathetic motorists to give him experimental towing flights. It was difficult, Mr. Roe says, to induce the motorists to let go at the proper moment when the machine began to swerve in the air, and the result of their holding on often ended in a dive and a crash.
   In the spring of 1908 the Antoinette engine arrived from France, and on June 8 Roe made the first flight ever accomplished in England. This consisted of some 60 yds. at a height of 2 ft. from the ground.
   At this point he received notice to quit Brooklands. He had never enjoyed anything like ideal conditions. He was not allowed to sleep in the shed where his machine was kept, nor could he use the track when it was open to motorists. Still his entire exclusion was a severe blow.
   He applied to the War Office for leave to erect a shed by the side of Mr. Cody's at Laffan's Plain, but was refused permission. He finally decided to continue on Lea Marshes, where some large fields were available. He also rented and boarded up a couple of railway arches in the vicinity.
   In the stable of his brother's house at Putney he had by this time constructed a tractor triplane, and this is the machine which has been presented to the Science Section of the South Kensington Museum. This he removed to Lea Marshes. Circumstances had compelled him to dispose of his Antoinette engine of 24 h.p., and he had nothing better than a 9 h.p. J.A.P. motor-cycle engine designed by John Alfred Prestwich. With this he made the first successful flight on an all-British aeroplane. This was in June, 1909, and for fourteen years the machine held the record of being the lowest-powered engine to fly in England.
   After this he made many successful flights, the earliest being short and low, earning him the title of "Roe the hopper." One of his troubles at this period was the back firing of the J.A.P. engine, which occasionally set his machine on fire.
   In the summer of 1909 a young woman came down to the river Lea intending to commit suicide. The sight of Roe's machine skimming about arrested her, and she went home. The next morning Mr. Roe received a letter asking him to allow her to take his place as pilot of the machine so that his life might be saved at the expense of her own. Roe tactfully replied that he would gladly allow her to fly his machine when he had perfected it, thus giving her something to look forward to.
   Roe was not left in peace to carry out his experiments. The local authorities employed a bailiff to watch him and to prevent him from flying. For a long time the bailiff was circumvented because of Roe's early-rising habits, but eventually he was caught in the act. Police court proceedings were instituted, but just then Bleriot flew the Channel and the case was dropped.
   Roe moved on to Wembley Park, now the site of the British Empire Exhibition, and flew with consistently increasing success. In 1910 he entered into partnership with his brother in Manchester and in the same year was welcomed back to Brooklands. After a visit to America the famous Avro machine, so named after its inventor, was produced, and from then onwards Roe reaped the success he deserved.
   Early in 1914 the German Government bought an Avro seaplane, which was the first heavier-than-air machine to make the voyage from the main land to Heligoland.
   The part the Avro played in the Great War is well known. In the early days it raided the airship sheds of Friedrichshafen, and, handled by Commander A. W. Bigsworth, it was the first British machine to damage a Zeppelin in the air. Throughout the war, and to this day, it has been the standard training machine of our Flying Services.
   Since the war the firm of Avro has been linked up with the manufacturers of the Crossley car, a fitting alliance, as they worked together through the war, Crossley cars as land transport for the R.A.F. and Avro machines in the air.