Billing
Eardley Delauny Billing was born in 1873 in Kensington,
London, the son of Charles Eardley Billing, a Birmingham iron-founder, and his wife, Annie Emilia Claridge, and the elder
brother of Noel Pemberton Billing.
The Billing tractor biplane was constructed at Brooklands during 1911 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. 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.
The machine was in use from May 1911 to the
end of the season, becoming nicknamed the 'Oozley Bird'. Eardley and his wife Ada also ran the Bluebird restaurant at Brooklands
until its closure at the outbreak of war. Billing had previously made a ground trainer, the Eardley Billing Oscillator, at
Brooklands which was exhibited at the Stanley Show in November 1910.
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.
Eardley Billing died in Colchester in December
1915.
Company References - British Aircraft
Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
Project Data
Project No | Type
No | Name | Alternative Name(s) | Year | Spec | Status | Qty | Description | References |
| |
Biplane | (Oozley or Ouseley Bird) | 1911 |
|
Proto |
1 |
1S, 1E biplane | 1,2,3 |
Project References - British Aircraft
Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
- British
Aircraft 1809-1914, Peter Lewis (Putnam, 1962)
- Flight, 26 Nov 1910
Total Billing Production 1
|