Roe I Triplane

A.V. Roe and Company

Industry	Aircraft manufacturing
Founded	January 1910 (1910-01)
Founder	A.V. Roe
Headquarters	Manchester , United Kingdom
Key people	A.V. Roe, Humphrey Roe

The Roe I Triplane—commonly later identified as the Avro Triplane—was an early British aircraft conceived and constructed by A.V. Roe. It holds the distinction of being the first fully British-built aeroplane to achieve powered flight. (Roe’s earlier biplane was powered by a French engine).

Background

Following his eviction from Brooklands, where he had developed his initial aircraft, Roe commenced designing a triplane in July 1908. A patent application for this design was submitted in January 1909, and assembly began in a stable adjacent to his brother Dr Spencer Verdon Roe’s residence in Putney, South-West London. Subsequently, the partially constructed aircraft was transported to a new flying site Roe secured on Walthamstow Marshes—then part of Essex but now within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. There, he leased two railway arches beneath the LNER railway near the River Lea.

File:ReplicaJAPengine.jpg

Replica of a 6 HP JAP motorcycle engine

File:AVROTriplaneMOSI.jpg

Replica displayed at the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester

Design and development

The Roe I Triplane featured a two-bay triplane configuration: its tailplane spanned approximately 10 ft (3.0 m) and incorporated three surfaces that generated lift instead of serving solely for stability, contributing about one-third of the total lifting surface area. Control of pitch was achieved by modifying the angle of incidence on the main wings, while lateral control relied on wing-warping. Control cables twisted the middle wing, with warping effects transmitted to both upper and lower wings via rear interplane struts. Directional control utilized a rectangular rudder positioned aft of the tailplane; initially, additional vertical surfaces between the tail assembly’s interplane struts enhanced directional stability. The fuselage was constructed as a wire-braced wooden frame with a triangular cross-section; the middle wing and tailplane rested on upper longerons, leaving clearance between lower wings and lower longeron. The engine was mounted beneath the wing’s leading edge and drove a propeller shaft situated above the upper longerons through a belt drive. Both wings and fuselage were covered with brown paper reinforced by an open-weave fabric. Roe dubbed this aircraft The Bullseye, named after braces produced by his brother’s company, which had partly funded its construction.

Initially, Roe planned to use a four-cylinder inline engine under development by J.A. Prestwich, but this engine failed bench testing. Consequently, he installed a 6-horsepower (hp) JAP engine salvaged from his prior aircraft. Taxiing trials began in April 1909 using this engine. By late May, a new 9 hp (7 kW) JAP engine arrived; after fitting it, Roe conducted brief flights covering approximately 50 ft (15 m), starting on 5 June. During these tests, he experimented with various reduction gear ratios between engine and propeller as well as adjustable propeller blade pitch settings changed between flights. On 13 July, he managed a flight spanning 100 ft (30 m), followed by one reaching 900 ft (270 m) ten days later. Over subsequent months, additional successful flights took place alongside minor modifications: replacing the drive belt with a chain, removing vertical tail surfaces, and relocating both engine and pilot seat forward.

Roe brought both the prototype and a second aircraft—with a slightly tapered fuselage and tailskid replacing the original tailwheel—to the Blackpool Aero Meeting in late October 1909. The first machine conducted some short flights; however, although a four-cylinder JAP engine rated at 20 hp (15 kW) arrived midway through the event for installation in the second airframe, inclement weather prevented its operation. The Blackpool flights marked the prototype’s final airborne activity; it was later exhibited at a Manchester exhibition in 1914 before being donated to London’s Science Museum.

By this stage, Roe had lost access to his Walthamstow railway arches workshop and resumed flight testing at Wembley. The second triplane flew there for the first time on 6 December. It sustained damage in an accident on 24 December. In January 1910, Roe established A.V. Roe and Company with support from his brother Humphrey; they secured workshop facilities within Humphrey’s firm Everard and Co at Brownfield Mills, Manchester. Flight operations shifted back to Brooklands where this aircraft flew again on 11 March 1910. By then Roe’s focus had shifted toward his next design—the Roe II Triplane—which was showcased at Olympia’s second Aero Show. The original triplane underwent brief experimentation involving removal of outer sections on its lower wings combined with extended upper wing sections—a configuration termed "two and a bit plane". This version flew at Brooklands during the Easter Monday Aero Meeting in 1910, but development ceased soon thereafter when it was dismantled.

On 12 July 2009, Walthamstow Marshes hosted an event commemorating this landmark all-British flight under Royal Aeronautical Society auspices, attended by multiple generations of Roe’s descendants. A new historical plaque was unveiled at the northern entrance to Roe’s former railway arch workshops.

Aircraft on display

• The original model is conserved at the Science Museum located in London.
• At the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, visitors can view a full-scale reproduction created by apprentices in 1952, designed to replicate its appearance during the 1909 Blackpool Aviation Meeting.