Avro Type D

The Avro Type D was an aircraft built in 1911 by the pioneer British aircraft designer A.V. Roe, who had previously built and flown several aircraft at Brooklands, mostly tractor triplanes. It was his first biplane, a tractor design like the Roe IV Triplane, with a triangular-section ash fuselage in two halves bolted together behind the cockpit for transport, and high aspect ratio wings braced in an irregular three-bay layout, with lateral control by wing warping. It was first flown at Brooklands on 1 April 1911 by C.H. Pixton, who found it easy and pleasant to fly, and on 12 May Pixton flew it to Hendon to demonstrate it to the Parliamentary Aerial Defence Committee. A modified second example was built for the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain race, and a floatplane conversion became the first seaplane to take off from British sea water on 18 November 1911.