Saturday, January 14, 2012

Avro triplane Roe IV, 1910

It was powered by a 35 horsepower (26 kW) Green water-cooled 4 cylinder inline engine, with the radiator mounted above the fuselage between the front inner interplane struts.

The single example built was used for a while as a trainer at the Avro Flying School at Brooklands, where several pilots who were to become famous learnt to fly in it, including Howard Pixton, who gained his Aero Club certificate in it on 24 January 1911. During its service as a trainer it was crashed numerous times, including at least two excursions into the notorious Brooklands sewage farm. After a crash on 14 February the aircraft was rebuilt with the fuselage lengthened by 4 ft (1.2 metres). It continued to be used for training until August 1911, when it was scrapped.

A full-scale flying replica was built for the 1960s film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and was afterwards donated to the Shuttleworth Collection at the Old Warden airfield in Bedfordshire, England.

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