The Avro Type D was an aircraft built in 1911 by the pioneer British aircraft designer A.V. Roe. Roe had previously built and flown several aircraft 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 airfields, ...

, most being tractor layout triplanes. The Type D was his first biplane.

Design

The Type D was the first

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

design by A.V. Roe. Like his earlier aircraft, the Roe IV Triplane, it was of tractor (aircraft) configuration and had a triangular section ash fuselage, divided in two-halves bolted together behind the cockpit for ease of transportation. The high

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

wings were braced in an irregular three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

layout, the interval between the pairs of interplane struts increasing from the centre section outwards. Lateral control was by

wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft or kite. 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 opposit ...

. The wing was mounted directly to the lower

longeron In engineering, a longeron or stringer is a load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural fram ...

of the fuselage, at the front of which was the

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

water-cooled engine, with the radiator mounted flat behind it in the direction of travel under the upper wing, between the fuselage and upper wing. Behind this a small coaming protected the passenger, with the pilot sitting behind. The

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

was similar to that of the Roe IV, with a low-mounted D-shaped rudder behind a small rectangular fixed fin and a large triangular tailplane bearing D-shaped elevators. The undercarriage had two forward-projecting skids, each mounted with a pair of wheels on a short axle.

Operational history

The Type D was first flown at

on 1 April 1911, piloted not by Roe but by C.H. Pixton, who reported that it was easy and pleasant to fly. This assessment was confirmed a few days later when Lt.

Wilfred Parke Lieutenant Wilfred Parke RN (1889–1912) was a British flight instructor who was the first pilot to make an observed recovery from a spin. Family Parke was the son of Alfred Watlington Parke, the Rector of Uplyme, and Hilda Fort, and the gra ...

succeeded in flying it the length of Brooklands on his first attempt at flying an aircraft. On 12 May Pixton flew the aircraft to Hendon to give a demonstration of the aircraft before the Parliamentary Aerial Defence Committee. During this occasion C.R. Samson was taken for a flight as a passenger, and A.V. Roe made his first solo flight in the aircraft. After Pixton had made a number of other flights, in June the aircraft was sold for £700 to Cdr Oliver Schwann of the Naval Airship Tender ''Hermione''. It was sent by rail to Barrow-in-Furness, where Schwann converted it to a

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

. The second example built was a modified version, intended to compete in the £10,000 ''Daily Mail'' Circuit of Britain Race. As with all subsequent aircraft, the fuselage was lengthened by 2 ft (0.6 m). The central single radiator was replaced by a pair of panels mounted vertically along either side of the fuselage, and the lower wings were reduced in span, the overhang being braced by a pair of diagonal struts on either side. It was powered by a 60 hp 45 kW E.N.V. Type F. This was flown by R.C. Kemp, who was to fly it in the race. It proved to be fast, but the engine tended to overheat and the rate of climb was poor when loaded. Without Roe's approval, extensions were fitted to the lower wings, bringing them back to the original configuration. While making a short trial flight on the morning of the race, Kemp was making a fairly steep dive when the left-hand wing extension failed. The aircraft spun in from 150 ft (46 m): the aircraft was wrecked, but Kemp was unhurt.

Floatplane development

Cdr Schwann covered the rear section of the fuselage, modified the tailplane, moved the radiator to a position lying flat over the wing centre section and a series of experimental floats were lashed to the skids. Taxying trials were carried out in the Cavendish Dock using narrow flat-bottomed floats. On 18 November 1911, flown by Cdr Schwann it became the first seaplane to take off from British sea water.Jackson 1965 p.28 It was reconstructed in 1912 as the Royal Aircraft Factory H.R.E.3 and was later flown as a landplane in 1913.

Specifications

References

* * Lewis, P ''British Aircraft 1809–1914''. London, Putnam, 1962 * Jackson, A.J. ''Avro Aircraft Since 1908''. London, Putnam, 1965

External links