
Описание
Страна: Великобритания
Год: 1910
Варианты
- Avro - Triplane I / II - 1909 - Великобритания
- Avro - Triplane III - 1910 - Великобритания
- Avro - Triplane IV - 1910 - Великобритания
- A.Jackson Avro Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)
- M.Goodall, A.Tagg British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer)
- P.Lewis British Aircraft 1809-1914 (Putnam)
- Журнал Flight
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A.Jackson - Avro Aircraft since 1908 /Putnam/
The Roe III triplane (35 h.p. J.A.P.) in flight with ailerons fitted to the top wing.
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A.Jackson - Avro Aircraft since 1908 /Putnam/
A. V. Roe flying the third Roe III triplane at the 1910 Blackpool Meeting.
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P.Lewis - British Aircraft 1809-1914 /Putnam/
Avro No. 3 Triplane at 1910 Boston Harvard Meeting.
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M.Goodall, A.Tagg - British Aircraft before the Great War /Schiffer/
A. V. Roe seated in the 35 h.p. Green engined Roe III triplane at Squantum Point, Boston, U.S.A. in September 1911. This machine was destroyed by fire on the train on the way to the Blackpool Meeting. (Green engine).
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P.Lewis - British Aircraft 1809-1914 /Putnam/
A. V. Roe carrying a passenger last week flying his No. 3 Triplane at the 1910 Blackpool Meeting.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
A. V . Roe starting, on his triplane, for a flight at Blackpool Aerodrome. Inset he is seen In full flight round the course.
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Журнал - Flight за 1910 г.
ONE, TWO AND THREE PLANES. - Grahame-White, in his Henry Farman biplane, flying over Drexel's Bleriot monoplane and Roe's triplane.
Другие самолёты на фотографии: Bleriot Bleriot-XI - Франция - 1909Farman Farman-IV - Франция - 1910
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M.Goodall, A.Tagg - British Aircraft before the Great War /Schiffer/
Roe III Triplane. Four of these were built, including one exported to the United States. (JAP engine).
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H.Cowin - Aviation Pioneers /Osprey/
Edwin Alliot Verdon Roe, seen here standing beside his Roe III two-seat triplane of 1910, was born near Manchester on 26 April 1877. 'AV' Showed an early aptitude for the more technical subjects, cemented by serving a five year apprenticeship at a railway works between 1893 and 1898. Next, 'A.V.' turned to things maritime, hoping to join the Royal Navy, but ending up by spending four years in the merchant marine. It was while at sea that 'A.V.' started to study bird flight, which by 1902 had led him into aeromodelling. 'A.V.'s success in this field got him the post of Secretary to the Aero Club in the spring of 1906, but the lure of joining an American project to build a steam-powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft proved too much and in a matter of weeks 'A.V.' had set off for Denver, Colorado. 'A.V.' Returned to Britain in the autumn of 1906, following the collapse of the project and by January 1907 had embarked on the design of his own first full-size, man-carrying aircraft, the 6hp JAP-powered Roe I canard biplane. Once re-engined with the more manful 25hp Antoinette, this machine, piloted by 'A.V.', made what was arguably the first flight by a British Aircraft on 8 June 1908. Just over a year later 'A.V.' Gained Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No 18, flying his Roe III triplane. During the whole of this period, from 1906 to 1910, 'A.V.' was living in near poverty. In 1910, with help from his family, 'A.V.' Founded 'A.V.' Roe and Company and in July 1911 gave up flying to concentrate on the design work that was to establish him as one of the country's leading aircraft designers, with such machines as his Avro 504. 'A.V.' sold his interest in Avro in 1928 and received his knighthood the following year, during which he bought a controlling interest in what was, thereafter, to be Saunders Roe, of which he remained President until his death on 4 January 1958.
A.Jackson Avro Aircraft since 1908 (Putnam)
Roe III Triplane
The ‘prototype’ Roe III was a two-seater, structurally similar to Roe II, but with the important difference that the mainplanes were fixed to the fuselage, climbing and diving being effected for the first time by means of a tail elevator. The aspect ratio was 8 and the bottom wing was cut back to a span of only 20 feet. The lifting tail remained, but as a result of experiments with the triplane Mercury, lateral control was by means of ailerons (5 ft span by 2 ft chord), this time hinged to the rear spar of the top wing so that they were slightly inset. By this time the functions of the rudder were better understood and this organ was increased in size to a rectangle equal in height to the maximum tailplane gap as on the modified Roe II. A more robust undercarriage was of the twin-skid, four wheel Farman type and the engine a 35 hp J.A.P. eight-cylinder vee air-cooled unit.
First taxying trials were made at Brooklands by A. V. Roe on the evening of June 21, 1910, and the first straights were flown in a tricky wind on June 24. Flight times gradually increased until on July 4 he made a best flight of 11 minutes (with ‘just a touch’ after 3) minutes) and later in the day carried his mother and several other passengers. Roe seldom exceeded 20 minutes in the air in the ‘prototype’ Roe III because the J.A.P. engine had a tendency to overheat and cover pilot and passenger with sooty oil ejected from the scavenging holes at the base of the cylinder walls. Carburettor fires were frequent but Roe persevered until on July 9 he remained aloft for 25 minutes and made comparatively steep turns. He also practised figure eights in readiness for Royal Aero Club tests which he passed on this aircraft on July 20. Aviator’s Certificate No. 18 was issued to the great pioneer on July 26, but within a year he had given up piloting in favour of designing and did not take the Air Ministry’s ‘A’ Licence tests when they came into being in 1919. He kept no log books and did not know how many hours he had flown as a pilot. The J.A.P. engined Roe III was advertised secondhand by the makers for £250 in May 1911 but its ultimate fate is uncertain.
The three subsequent triplanes of this type (all powered by 35 hp Green four cylinder, water-cooled engines) had the span of the top mainplane increased to 31 ft and were fitted with ailerons hinged to the rear spar of the centre wing. First of these, identified by rounded comers to the trailing edge of the rudder and by fuselage covering applied only in the region of the cockpits, was a special slow flying aircraft with a more heavily cambered wing section for instructional use at the Avro School. Piloted by the designer, this triplane first flew at Brooklands on July 9, 1910, and its performance was at once encouraging. Both Roe and Pixton carried passengers on July 13 and one another on the following day. At the end of the month the machine was sent by train from Weybridge to the Blackpool meeting only to be destroyed by fire en route, as was the Roe II Mercury.
Determined to compete, Roe and Pixton hastily brought spare components from the Manchester works to Blackpool and arranged for a new engine to be delivered direct from the Green factory. Work started on Thursday July 28 and the finished aircraft flew on Monday August 1, much of the erection having been done by Roe himself during the previous night. There was not even time to cover the fuselage. Three attempts were made to take off, during which a tyre burst and some rubber shock absorbers snapped. Two struts were broken on landing but not before Roe had made four circuits of the course, at least two with passengers (who could face forward or backward according to taste). For this he received a special merit award of £50. August 2 dawned wet and windy but after repairs Roe succeeded in making two more short hops at 7.30 p.m. and on the following afternoon left the ground in a much more lively manner. In turning, the wind carried him dangerously close to one of the pylons, to avoid which he had no alternative but to make a crash landing, breaking several more struts, the airscrew and one mainplane.
Visitors to the Blackpool meeting included J. V. Martin, Organiser of the Harvard University Aeronautical Society, who ordered a Roe III triplane which was built, crated and despatched (without engine) to the USA by August 13! A. V. Roe and Claude Grahame-White were also invited to fly at the Boston Aviation Meeting scheduled to open on September 2. They left in the White Star liner Cymric on August 23, Roe taking with him the makeshift Blackpool triplane in a 40 ft packing case. Arriving at Boston on September 1, they collected the Harvard Society’s triplane (which had been stored at East Boston Docks since its arrival in the Cunarder Ivernia a week previously), and took all the aircraft by lighter to the airfield at Squantum Point. Here Roe and mechanics Pixton and Halstead complete the erection of the Blackpool triplane on September 3, but flights begun on September 6 were disappointing, the longest being 75 ft at a height of 10 ft. At 5 p.m. the engine failed and the triplane landed heavily in front of the grandstand, damaging the starboard mainplanes and undercarriage. Local woodworker C. H. Metz made a new airscrew and at 6.30 p.m. on September 8 Roe succeeded in leaving the ground properly for the first time, reaching a height of 30 feet. When he shut off the engine to land, however, a sudden gust caused the aircraft to swerve to starboard and dig the right undercarriage skid into the ground, causing it to swing round with major breakages. Roe was unhurt and more determined than ever to show the Americans that his triplanes were more than just interesting freaks. On September 9 he secured permission from Harvard to erect the Society’s triplane and fit it with the 35 hp Green engine taken from the wreck. Erection was completed and engine runs made on September 12 and it is said that the aircraft was slightly heavier than its predecessor and had two instead of four wheels. Two days later, amid the applause of 10,000 spectators, successful flights were made up to a height of 50 feet but the engine still refused to give full power. After tinkering with it for most of September 15, Roe made a good take-off at 4.20 p.m. and flew the length of the field. In attempting to round the pylon, he sideslipped into the ground from 50 feet, totally wrecking the port side of the aircraft and suffering a severe scalp wound. A cordon of police saved the wreck from souvenir hunters and after A. V. Roe returned to England, Pixton built a new triplane for Harvard out of the remains of the other two. He then sold the surplus spares to the local aircraft firm of Burgess and Co and Curtiss of Marblehead to raise money for his passage home, leaving Harvard with their machine untested in the air.
SPECIFICATION AND DATA
Manufacturers: A. V. Roe and Company, Brownsfield Mills, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester; and Brooklands Aerodrome, Byfleet, Surrey
Power Plants:
One 35 h.p. J.A.P.
One 35 h.p. Green
Dimensions:
Span (upper) 31 ft. 0 in. (lower) 20 ft. 0 in.
Length 23 ft. 0 in. Wing area 287 sq. ft.
Tailplane area 75 sq. ft.
Weight: All-up weight 750 lb.
Production:
No. 1 Prototype with 35 h.p. J.A.P., first flown 24.6.10, up for sale 5.11
No. 2 Avro School machine, first flown 9.7.10, burned out 27.7.10
No. 3 Blackpool makeshift machine, first flown 1.8.10, crashed at Boston, U.S.A. 8.9.10
No. 4 Harvard Aeronautical Society machine, first flown (and crashed) at Boston, U.S.A. 15.9.10
Note: A work of reference of the period states that a triplane of this type was built for the great pioneer pilot Cecil Grace. This aircraft is conspicuous by its absence from contemporary records and diligent research by the author only makes it evident that no such aircraft existed.
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