Cody aircraft mark IC, Cathedral RAE-O121

Aviation in Britain Before the First World War

Cody aircraft mark IC (Cathedral - so named because of its size and the size of the hangar it required and the katahedral (lower at the wing tips) arrangement of the wings) outside the shed on Laffan's Plain after it had returned from a record breaking cross country flight of around forty miles lasting an hour and three minutes, passing over Aldershot, Camberley, Fleet, Farnham and Farnborough. The aircraft is partially obscured by cheering civilians and soldiers, many of whom are waving their caps in the air. This was the furthest cross country flight that had ever been made, anywhere in the world and the longest flight in time and distance in the British Empire. Only six other pilots and four types of machine had flown over forty miles anywhere in the world and all of these were aerodrome circuits not cross country flights. Cody had previously made several record breaking flights and made the first passenger carrying flight in Britain (Colonel Capper on the 14th August 1909)

The most important change made with this mark was moving the pilots seat to in front of the engine. The aircraft was altered several more times, here the additional elevators at the side of the central one (which has now been split in two down the centre) are missing, the rudder is in the original position above the elevator, a tail skid and balancing planes have been added between the wings on the rear outer struts.

Particularly with his earlier aircraft Cody made constant adjustments to the arrangement of the flying surfaces, often after crashes, in order to obtain better performance and handling. These changes mean that identifying specific sub-marks of Cody aircraft can at times be very difficult, it should also be remembered that because of this constant evolution of his aircraft Cody would probably not have classified them in such a detailed manner.