AVRO Triplane

Alliot Verdon Roe's Triplane 1 was the first all British designed and built aircraft to fly in Britain on 23rd July 1909. The triplane was constructed mainly of deal and covered in oiled paper. It weighed 250lbs. It had triplane wings and tailplane and was grossly underpowered by a 9hp JAP engine driving a 9ft, 4 blade propeller via a belt reduction. Its longest flight was 900ft at an average height of 10ft. The original aircraft is in the London Science Museum.

A.V. Roe designed and built several other versions of the triplane. The final version was a Triplane 4, completed in September 1910 powered by a 35hp, 4 cylinder, water cooled, Green engine. This was used almost exclusively for instructional work at the Avro flying School at Brooklands. It crashed many times. Howard Pixton crashed it twice into the sewage farm lake at the rear of the banked racing car circuit and became known as "The King of the Sewage Farm".