Cody aircraft mark IC, Cathedral RAE-O13

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) in flight close to the ground the unevenness of which is clearly visible. The most important change made with this mark was moving the pilots seat to in front of the engine. It was then 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.

It was in this aircraft that Cody made the first passenger carrying flight in Britain (Colonel Capper on the 14th August 1909) and several record breaking flights including one cross-country of around forty miles and lasting an hour and three minutes, passing over Aldershot, Camberley, Fleet, Farnham and Farnborough on the 8th September 1909. 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.