This photograph of Roe in the biplane pointing down the slope of the "pull-up” at Brooklands suggests that he used the slope to increase the aeroplane’s speed during taxying trials with the inadequate 6 h.p. JAP engine.

A. V. Roe biplane.

Roe poses with his newly completed biplane in its shed alongside the Brooklands track in late 1907. The aeroplane fitted sideways in its shed, which meant that several men were required to lift it in and out every time a trial was made.

A.V. Roe gives scale to his 40ft x 20ft shed and Roe 1 Biplane at Brooklands in 1908.

A. V. Roe's original 1907 biplane in its shed at Brooklands. This scene is destined to come to life again.

Unpublished for some 109 years, these two photographs show the completed fuselage of A.V. Roe’s first man­carrying aircraft at his brother’s house in Wandsworth in 1907. Fitted to the airframe is the four-paddle-bladed propeller, which caused Roe many headaches. In a letter dated April 1, 1908, published in Engineering two days later, Roe explains that his propeller boss was a magnalium casting and the blades were of sheet magnalium, but adds: ‘‘Although this metal is slightly lighter than aluminium, and supposed to be nearly as strong as mild steel, my experience with it hardly proves this latter statement”.

Alliott Verdon Roe with this favourite forward-steering-plane 1907 model, powered by twisted strands of rubber.

One of the photographs taken by Cody at Alexandra Palace in April 1907, this shows Roe holding aloft his second-prize-winning model aircraft. The steeply sloping ground in the park made it difficult for the judges to determine whether a model was indeed making a sustained flight or merely a descending power-assisted glide.