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ROE 1 Biplane (1908) - Early Powered Flight

This photograph is of one of the very first aeroplanes. Alliot Verdon Roe (Founder of the AVRO WW1 fighters) built his plane in Putney, South West London in 1907. A prize of £2,500 (over a million pounds in today's money) was offered for the first flight around the famous Brooklands Motor Racing Track. The first engine he fitted, a 6hp JAP engine was not powerful enough. He fitted a more powerful 24hp engine in May 1908

Roe used a tow rope attached to cars to test his flying machine along the finishing straight of the race track. In June 1908 he managed to get 150 feet into the air. Alliot Verdon Roe was the first British Subject to leave the ground in an aeroplane of his own design. The original aircraft was destroyed in a sudden gust of wind very soon after its first flight. A.V.Roe carried on designing aircraft and formed A.V.Roe & Co Ltd (AVRO) in 1910.

The company produced many excellent fighters and bombers. The most famous being the Dam Busting RAF AVRO Lancaster four engined heavy bomber. Hawker Siddeley merged with the company and they themselves became part of British Aerospace. This airworthy replica and exact copy of Roe's wooden workshop shed were built by the staff of the Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, England