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The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British business founded in 1920, when Airco of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer and owner was sold to BSA. de Havilland then set up a company under his name in September that year in Edgware. It later moved to Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, England.
History Initially de Havilland concentrated on single and two-seat biplanes, essentially continuing the DH line of aircraft built by Airco, but engined with de Havilland's own Gipsy engines. These included the Gipsy and Tiger Moths. These aircraft set many aviation records, many piloted by de Havilland himself. Amy Johnson flew solo from England to Australia in a Gipsy Moth in 1930, the flight taking 19.5 days. The Moth line of aircraft continued with the more refined (and enclosed) Hornet Moth and Moth Minor, the latter being a low-wing monoplane constructed of wood. The DH.84 Dragon was the first aircraft purchased by Aer Lingus, who later operated the DH.84B Dragon Express and the DH.89 Dragon Rapide. de Havilland continued to produce high-performance aircraft including the high-speed twin-piston-engine DH.88 Comet mailplane, one of which became famous in its red livery as the winner of the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Australia. The high-performance designs and wooden construction methods culminated in perhaps the most famous de Havilland aircraft - the Mosquito, constructed primarily of wood because of the shortage of aluminium during the war. After the Second World War de Havilland continued with leading-edge designs in both the military and civil field, but several public disasters doomed the company as an independent entity. The de Havilland Comet was put into service in 1952 as the eagerly-anticipated first commercial jet airliner, twice as fast as previous alternatives and a source of British national pride. The Comet suffered three tragic and high-profile crashes in two years. Less well known, but equally disastrous, was the explosion of the DH.110 Sea Vixen prototype during the 1952 Farnborough Air Show, which also killed members of the public. de Havilland was bought by Hawker-Siddeley before incorporation into British Aerospace. In this period many designs started by de Havilland came into production, including the Trident, HS-146 (later BAe-146), HS-125 (later BAe-125). de Havilland Aircraft Examples are on display at the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre. de Havilland Canada
de Havilland Australia de Havilland's first foreign subsidiary was set up in Australia in March 1927. The company moved to Sydney during 1930 where it acted as an agency for the parent company, with assembly, repair and spares facilities for the company's popular sporting and airliner types. Aircraft design and full manufacture by de Havilland Australia did not take place until the Second World War, when the company began production of the DH-82 Tiger Moth primary trainer at Bankstown, NSW. During the War the Australian company began to manufacture the Mosquito, with deliveries to the RAAF being first made in 1944. A total of 212 Mosquitos were built at Bankstown between 1943 and 1948. Some of these aircraft continued to be in the service of the RAAF until 1953. Licensed production of the de Havilland Vampire began by 1946. A completely Australian design, the DHA-3 Drover, was manufactured, although only about 20 were produced, mostly for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). Some were also operated by Trans Australia Airlines and Qantas. Production of these aircraft took place between 1948 and 1952. The DHA-3 Drover was a 3-engined light transport capable of carrying 6 - 8 passengers, designed as a replacement for the de Havilland DH-84 Dragon, which was common in Australia at the time. The engines chosen for the new design were 3 de Havilland Gipsy Major Mk-10 4's. Several Drovers were later re-engined with Lycoming flat 4 engines. de Havilland Australia is now owned by Boeing, and is known as Boeing Australia. de Havilland engines Trivia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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