In December 1911 the British War Office announced a competition for a Military aeroplane capable of carrying a pilot and observer for the recently established Royal Flying Corps. First prize was £4,000, with the War Office having the option to purchase any of the prize winning machines.[1] [2]
The American showman and aviation pioneer Samuel Cody, who had developed a system of man-carrying kites from 1901, built his first aircraft, the British Army Aeroplane No 1 at the Army Balloon Factory at Farnborough in 1908, making its first flight, recognised as the first powered controlled flight in the United Kingdom on 16 October 1908.[3] In order to compete for the prize money offered by the War Office, Cody decided to design and build a new monoplane, while also entering his existing biplane that had finished fourth in the 1911 Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race.[4] [5]
Cody's previous designs were pusher canard biplanes, but the new aircraft was a tractor high-winged monoplane powered by a single 120 hp (89 kW) Austro-Daimler engine which had been fitted to an Etrich Taube which had crashed during the 1911 Circuit of Britain, which Cody had purchased after the race.[4] It had a deep fuselage that accommodated the crew of two side-by-side. The tail arrangement was unusual, with two elevators and two rudders carried on four bamboo booms that led back from the fuselage, the all moving tail surfaces forming a box shape. Fabric was stretched between the tail booms giving a cruciform shape as seen in cross-section. Lateral control was by means of wing warping, and the aircraft was fitted with a nosewheel undercarriage.[4] [5] [6]
The monoplane made its maiden flight on 21 June 1912,[5] but on 8 July a cow ran into the path of the aircraft during landing. The resulting crash badly damaged the aircraft and killed the cow, although Cody was not badly injured.[4] As the Circuit of Britain aircraft had already been wrecked in a crash, Cody used the engine from the monoplane together with what parts he could salvage from the biplane to construct a new aircraft, the Cody V biplane, which won the Military Aeroplane Competition.[7]