Alliott Verdon Roe
Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE, Hon. FRAeS, FIAS 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 190708 with a fullsize aeroplane at Brooklands, near Weybridge in Surrey, and became the first Englishman to fly an allBritish 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 wasto 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 amp Yorkshire Railway. He later tried to join the Royal Navy to study marine engineering at Kings 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 amp 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 b
Source: Wikipedia