Boston Aviation meeting

One of the visitors to the Blackpool Aviation meeting was J.V. Martin was also the organiser of the Harvard University Aeronautical Society.

Martin ordered a Roe III Triplane and invited AV and Claude Grahame-White to attend the event in Boston, 2nd September 1910.

The new Triplane was completed on the 13th August, just 11 days after the end of the Blackpool event. This was then crated up and sent to Boston.

AV and Grahame-White travelled on Cymric of White Star Lines, AV also took the Roe III Triplane from Blackpool on the voyage. They arrived in Boston on the 1st September.

The flight trials did not go very well:

On the 6th September AV flew the Blackpool Triplane until the engine failed causing it to crash in front of the grandstand.

The aircraft was repaired by the 8th of September and flew to 30ft, on coming into land AV turned off the engine and was hit by a gust of wind. This caused him to crash into the ground causing a lot of damage.

By the 12th September AV had completed the Harvard Roe III and fitted it with the 35 hp Green engine from the first wreck. On the 14th September AV flew at heights of up to 50ft in front of a crowd of ten thousand. The engine was giving him trouble and would not supply full power. The next day AV took off again after making some engine changes. He was flying well and was attempting to round the pylon when he sideslipped into the ground from 50ft. This crash was very severe and also gave AV a deep scalp wound.

Pixton built another Roe III for Harvard from the remains of the two aircraft and AV returned to England.