Frederick Handley Page became interested in aviation in the early 1900s, and joined the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain in 1907. He designed and built his first experimental glider in 1909, leading to the Handley Page Type A or Bluebird in 1910. This single-seat monoplane was made of wood with a fabric covering, it had a tailskid landing gear and was powered by a 20 h.p. Advance 4-cylinder engine driving a tractor propeller. The Bluebird was flown on 26th May 1910 before a crash landing, and after this modifications were made to improve lateral control and a more powerful Alvaston flat-twin engine of 25 h.p. was added. This aircraft was redesignated as the Type C. However, with these changes, the aircraft would not fly at all and so Handley Page turned to an improved design known as the Type D or Antiseptic. This had a crescent-shaped monoplane wing, wire-braced to a kingpost and to the landing gear. The landing gear had lightweight wheels which had a long wooden skid mounted between them. This eliminated the need for a tail skid. When the Type D was exhibited at Olympia in April 1911, it had a 35 h.p. Green engine installed, but this was replaced by an Isaacson radial before it was flown for the first time on 15th July 1911. This first flight ended with a crash upon landing, but was soon repaired and flown subsequently on a number of occasions, gaining the unofficial nickname Yellow Peril due to the colour of its wings and tail unit. With the introduction of a type number system in 1924, the Types A, C and D were given the retrospective designations HP.1, HP.3 and H.P.4.