Roe, Sir Alliott Verdon

Sir Alliott Verdon Roe, in full Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe, (born April 26, 1877, Patricroft, Lancashire, Eng.—died Jan. 4, 1958, London), the first Englishman to construct and fly his own airplane.

Roe quit school at age 14 and went to British Columbia. He returned a year later and became an apprentice at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’s locomotive shops. He left the shops and went to sea on a freighter where, while observing seagulls, he became interested in the problem of flight. Back in England he heard of the success of the Wright brothers and set out to build his own plane. On June 8, 1908, he flew his biplane a distance of 75 feet (23 m).

Roe founded A.V. Roe and Company, Ltd., with his brother Humphrey in 1910. Of his early planes, the Avro 504 was the most successful: more than 17,000 were manufactured. It was used on bombing missions in the early part of World War I and served as a trainer for British pilots. Ten years after the war, Roe severed all ties with his company and acquired an interest in another firm, which became Saunders-Roe, Ltd.; the company designed and manufactured flying boats. He was knighted in 1929.

Avro aircraft played an important part in World War II, and Avro developed some of the major air weapons of Britain’s modern air force, including the Vulcan bomber and the Blue Steel missile. In 1962 A.V. Roe Company became an integral unit of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Ltd.