The 1911 Billing biplane was designed and built by Eardley Billing at Brooklands in the UK during 1911. It was a single-seat tractor built from C.A.Moreing’s discarded Voisin.
The Billing tractor biplane was constructed using the wings of the Voisin pusher of C.A. Moreing. The engine was a 40 h.p. ENV Type D. It was originally flown with an uncovered fuselage but fabric was added later.
The machine was in use from May 1911 to the end of the season, becoming nicknamed the ‘Oozley Bird’. Billing was, at that time, in charge of the Lane Gliding School at Brooklands and for a brief period at the begining of 1912 was in charge of the Deperdussin School at Brooklands. Eardley and his wife Ada also ran the Bluebird restaurant at Brooklands until its closure at the outbreak of war.
The Billing biplane was crashed on 4 October 1911 by N.S. Percival, who rebuilt it as the Percival Parseval I at the end of 1911. Percival had completed the tests for his Royal Aero Club Aviator’s Certificate No.111 in the machine on 1 August 1911.
Replica
Best-Devereux & Co Eardley-Billing
All Aero 