RADLEY (& MOORHOUSE) monoplane (James Radley, St. John's St., Huntingdon and William B. Rhodes Moorhouse)

   James Radley was one of the leading British pilots of a Bleriot in 1910. After he returned from a successful tour of America at the end of the year, he turned to design and construction and gradually gave up flying. He was joined in this work by W.B. Rhodes Moorhouse, who took on the flying and instructional work, and later was to win the VC in the RFC in 1915.
   The first aircraft built was a single-seater with gull wing, which flew at Portholme, Huntingdon for the first time 27 July 1911. The machine was of conventional tractor layout with the fuselage faired to a circular section. The engine was set back in the nose, with the propeller mounted on an extension shaft supported on a front bearing. A four wheeled main undercarriage with two skids, and a tall tail skid, supported the machine on the ground, this providing clearance for the bottom rudder. The tail unit consisted of a long triangular shaped fin, with tailplanes extending along the center of the fuselage sides, together with a one piece elevator and top rudder.
   The inboard section of the wing was set with a small dihedral angle but curved downwards from about mid-span; the tips were extended rearwards and could be warped for lateral control.
   The machine was later referred to by the names of both Radley and Moorhouse, and was bought by a newly qualified pilot from Brooklands, named Tom Game. He wrote it off in a crash at Huntingdon on 19 January 1912.

   Power: 50hp Gnome seven-cylinder air-cooled rotary