Avro Triplane replica flying at Old Warden airfield, Bedfordshire, in October 2015
The Roe IV Triplane (usually known as the Avro Triplane) was an early aircraft designed and built by Roe who had designed the Roe I Triplane in 1909, the first all-British aircraft to fly. The Avro Triplane was a tractor configuration triplane 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 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 ( m). 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, where it remains
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Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aircraft, avro, flying, replica, shuttleworth, triplane
