The MOSI team (above) are sending the replica engine out on tour
A three-winged aeroplane used in the first all-British flight has left its Manchester home for a celebratory UK tour following a three-year rebuilding project.
The replica Triplane, which was built by Manchester inventor Alliott Verdon Roe in 1909, is embarking on the pilgrimage from the city’s Museum of Science & Industry in preparation for flight trials at Woodvale Airport near Formby.
A team of volunteers, including ex-aeronautical engineers from the former Avro factory in Woodford, carried out painstaking research to recreate the engine to Roe’s original design, although they maintain there are “no guarantees” that the archetype will achieve flight at the June tests.
Nick Forder, Transport Curator at MOSI, said the attempt would “celebrate” Roe’s “brave effort”. “The MOSI team has worked tirelessly in recent months to recreate the Triplane, so we are all very excited to see whether it can actually fly, but the original flew, so there’s every chance that this one will too,” he optimistically predicted.
“The team is made up of some very talented former aeronautical engineers, who have helped to build very powerful aeroplanes at the former Avro factory at Woodford.
“It has been an incredible challenge for them to build an aeroplane as if, like Roe, they had no knowledge of how one works. The replica is slightly heavier and stronger than the original, but Roe didn’t need to worry about health and safety.”
Propeller designer Bill James
Head designer Peter Teagle, a former Chief Design Engineer at the Avro factory, said the team had gained “terrific respect” for Roe while using drawings of the Triplane provided by his son.
“We have made some safety modifications to meet modern requirements but we tried to make as faithful a copy of the original as we could,” he said, pointing to the replacement of the wooden bench Roe chanced his life on with a full pilot harness.
The new model weighs 60lb more than the original, comprising a frame made of spruce, ash and birch wood and a 1912 JAP engine.
Experts fear it could be hampered by the extra weight, as Roe’s construction daintily benefited from wooden wings covered in cotton-backed oiled paper and bicycle wheels for landing.
