The Roe IV Triplane was an early British aircraft designed by

Alliott Verdon Roe Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE, Hon. FRAeS, FIAS (26 April 1877 – 4 January 1958) was a pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, and founder in 1910 of the Avro company. After experimenting with model aeroplanes, he made flight tr ...

and built by A.V. Roe and Company. It was first flown in September 1910.

Design and development

The Roe IV Triplane resembled Roe's Type III, being a

tractor configuration In aviation, the term tractor configuration refers to an aircraft constructed in the standard configuration with its engine mounted with the propeller in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. Oppositely, the pusher co ...

triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The triplane arrangement m ...

with the lower wing of smaller span than the upper two and a triangular section wire-braced fuselage, which was uncovered behind the pilot's seat. The middle wing was mounted directly above the upper longerons, and there was a gap between the single lower longeron and the lower wing. The wings were connected by four unequally-spaced pairs of interplane struts on either side, the innermost pair on each side being just outboard of the upper longerons and the outer pair connecting only the upper pair of wings due to the shorter span of the lower wing. Although the ailerons fitted to the previous design had been satisfactory, Roe returned to

wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite direc ...

for lateral control. The lifting triplane tailplanes of the earlier design were replaced by a non-lifting single triangular tailplane with a divided elevator and a small unbalanced rudder. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of skids extending forward of the propeller, with a pair of wheels mounted on each skid, and a sprung tailskid. It was powered by a Green water-cooled four-cylinder inline engine, with the radiator mounted above the fuselage between the front inner interplane struts.

Service history

The single example built was used for a while as a trainer at the Avro Flying School at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfie ...

, where several pilots who were to become famous learnt to fly in it, including

Howard Pixton Howard Pixton (14 December 1885 – 7 February 1972) was an early British aviator who won the 1914 Schneider Trophy air race held in Monaco flying a Sopwith Tabloid seaplane powered by a 100 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine, completing th ...

, 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 twice 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 m). It continued to be used for training until August 1911, when it was scrapped. A full-scale flying replica was built for the 1965 film ''

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines ''Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes'' is a 1965 British period comedy film that satirizes the early years of aviation. Directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, the film ...

'' and was afterwards donated to the

Shuttleworth Collection The Shuttleworth Collection is a working aeronautical and automotive collection located at the Old Warden Aerodrome, Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England. It is the oldest in the world and one of the most prestigious, due to the variety of old a ...

, where it remains in airworthy condition as of 2022.The Shuttleworth Collection - Avro Triplane
www.shuttleworth.org Retrieved: 8 April 2010

Specifications (as first flown)

References

Bibliography

* Jackson, A.J. ''Avro Aircraft Since 1908'' London: Putnam, 1965. * Taylor, M.J.H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation'' London: Studio Editions, 1989, p. 91 * ''World Aircraft Information Files'' London: Bright Star. File 889, Sheet 92 {{Avro aircraft 1910s British experimental aircraft Roe IV Triplane Triplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1910