 In April 1913, Henry Folland, one of the talented pool of designers assembled at the Royal Aircraft Factory started the design of a high-speed development of the earlier Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.2 (designed by Geoffrey de Havilland), the S.E.3.The S.E.3 was abandoned in favour of the S.E.4, a more advanced aircraft intended to break the world air speed record.The S.E.4 was a tractor biplane powered by a closely cowled 14-cylinder, two-row Gnome rotary engine.