Many years ago the comedy film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines was released, based on the 1912 London to Paris air race. Inpact released 6 x 1/48 scale models of some of the subjects in the film, among which was the Avro Biplane of 1911. Vacant has posted some photos of his Avro Triplane scratch build on Airfix Tribute Forum, a model of which was also released by Inpact as it too had featured in the film. I well remember building all 6 of the Inpact kits when they were released but these days I only build in one scale (God's Own), so if I wanted an Avro Biplane in my collection I only had one option - build one myself. Vacant had not only shown me that it would be possible, it inspired me to want to try so after a little research I found a suitable set of drawings and started to cut plastic. There is a build thread in the forum mentioned above and here are some pictures of the result together with a few notes on the original aeroplanes. (The 6 kits are still available in 1/48 scale but I cannot remember which label they are currently sold under - just look on e-bay and you can find them).
The first biplane to be designed by A. V. Roe flew for the first time on 1 April 1911. This was a two seat aircraft with a 35hp Green engine and originally had a triangular tail, but this was quickly replaced with a square unit. The remainder of the machine was built following the same techniques as Roe's earlier triplanes with a triangular shaped fuselage with only the front covered in fabric, and the radiator mounted in front of the pilot.
Wing warping was used to control the aircraft which was relatively stable and easy to fly. The first machine took part in the Brooklands - Shoreham air race of 6 May 1911. Subsequently Roe's biplanes took part in several other air races in that year, but perhaps the most notable incident occurred when naval Commander Schwann, who had bought the machine, had it transported to Barrow-in-Furness and had the skids mounted on floats. Following a series of trials on different designs of floats the aircraft unexpectedly lifted off the water to make the first take off from sea-water of any aircraft in Britain.
Five other machines were built in late 1911 and early 1912 with small variations in the basic design, including sesquiplane wings, different engines and repositioning of the radiator to improve the view of the pilot. The sixth machine was a single seater with the radiator tilted back towards the pilot across the passenger seat.
The second machine and two others were used in 1913 at the Avro Flying School at Shoreham. The records indicate that these machines were scrapped in early 1914.
This was A. V. Roe's first truly successful design, but it was important for other reasons. Roe and his design team gained valuable practical experience from these machines which was used and incorporated into one of the legends of early aviation history - the 504 series of aircraft of which over 8000 were built.
Thanks for looking.
