After carrying out more than a year of test flights in his British Army Aeroplane No 1, in which he made the first powered heavier-
than-air flight in Great Britain on 16 October 1908, the American expatriate Samuel Franklin Cody built another biplane to compete
for the first Michelin Cup. This aircraft, named simply the Cody Michelin Cup Biplane, resembled his first machine, but had improved
controls and used ailerons instead of the wing-warping technique.
In this second biplane, Cody established British records for
endurance and distance, flying 152.08km in 2 hours 45 minutes. On 31 December 1910, he won the Micheiin Cup and broke his own records, covering a distance of 298.47km in a time of 4 hours 47 minutes.
