Alliot Verdon Roe
| Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe | |
|---|---|
Alliott Verdon-Roe in 1930
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| Born |
26 April 1877 Patricroft, Eccles, England |
| Died | 4 January 1958 (aged 80) St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, England |
| Resting place | St Andrew's Church, Hamble |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | aircraft manufacturer |
| Known for | British aviation pioneer |
| Website | verdon-roe |
Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE, Hon. FRAeS, FIAS (26 April 1877 – 4 January 1958) was a pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, and founder in 1910 of the Avro company. After experimenting with model aeroplanes, he made flight trials in 1907–08 with a full-size aeroplane at Brooklands, near Weybridge in Surrey, and became the first Englishman to fly an all-British machine a year later, with a triplane, on the Walthamstow Marshes.
Roe was born in Patricroft, Eccles, Lancashire in 1877. The son of a doctor, he left home when he was 14 to go to Canada where he had been offered training as a surveyor. When he arrived in British Columbia he discovered that a slump in the silver market meant that there was little demand for surveyors, so he spent a year doing odd jobs, then returned to England. There he served as an apprentice with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. He later tried to join the Royal Navy to study marine engineering at King's College London, but, although he passed the technical and mathematics papers, he was rejected for failing some of the general subjects. As well as doing dockyard work, Roe joined the ship SS Jebba of the British & South African Royal Mail Company as fifth engineer on the West African run. He went on to serve on other vessels, finishing his Merchant Navy career as third engineer aboard the SS Ichanga. It was during these voyages that he became interested in the possibility of building a flying machine, having observed the soaring flight of albatrosses.
In 1906 he applied for the job of Secretary of the Royal Aero Club. Although there were other better-qualified candidates, Roe's enthusiasm for aviation impressed Charles Rolls, who interviewed him, and he was given the job, but shortly after this he was offered a job as a draughtsman by G.L.O. Davidson, who had devised a twin-rotored aircraft and had secured the financial backing of Sir William Armstrong of Armstrong-Whitworth. This machine was being built in Denver in the USA. After disagreements about the design of the machine and problems with his salary, Roe, who had been sent back to Britain to deal with patenting the design, resigned.
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