De Havilland

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The correct title of this article is de Havilland. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
de Havilland Aircraft Company
de Havilland logo
Type defunct
Founded 1920
Headquarters Hatfield, England
Key people Geoffrey de Havilland, founder
Industry aerospace
Products civil and military aircraft
Parent Hawker Siddeley (from 1959)
Subsidiaries de Havilland Canada (1928)
de Havilland Australia (1927)
Airspeed Ltd.
For other uses, see De Havilland (disambiguation).

The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer 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 at Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware. It later moved to Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, England.

Contents

[edit] History

Initially, de Havilland concentrated on single and two-seat biplanes, essentially continuing the DH line of aircraft built by Airco, but powered by de Havilland's own Gypsy engines. These included the Gypsy 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 Gypsy 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. The company followed this with the even higher-performing Hornet, which was one of the pioneers of the use of metal-wood and metal-metal bonding techniques.

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 experimental, tailless, jet-powered de Havilland DH 108 Swallow crashed in the Thames Estuary, killing Geoffrey de Havilland Jr, son of the company's founder. 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.

Hawker Siddeley bought de Havilland before incorporation into British Aerospace in 1977. 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).

Timeline of British aerospace companies, 1955-present
v • d • e
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
Handley Page
F. G. Miles Beagle Aircraft
Auster
Scottish Aviation [1] British Aerospace BAE Systems
Hawker Siddeley [2] Hawker Siddeley Aviation
Blackburn
Avro
de Havilland
Folland
Vickers-Armstrongs British Aircraft Corporation [4]
English Electric [3]
Bristol
Hunting
The General Electric Company (GEC) The Marconi Company GEC-Marconi/Marconi Electronic Systems
The English Electric Company [5] Marconi plc
  1. Purchased rights for various Beagle and Handley-Page designs from the liquidator.
  2. Comprising Hawker Aircraft, Gloster Aircraft Company and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft.
  3. English Electric Aircraft, a subsidiary of the English Electric Company.
  4. BAC comprised the aviation interests of the companies that formed it, and wholly-owned Hunting Aircraft.
  5. GEC purchased EE and with it The Marconi Company and EE's shareholding in BAC, through its subsidiary EE Aircraft.

[edit] de Havilland aircraft

de Havilland Dove.
de Havilland Dove.
de Havilland DH 83 Fox Moth.
de Havilland DH 83 Fox Moth.
de Havilland Mosquito B.35 (reconfigured to a FB Mk.VI, on display at the Alberta Aviation Museum).
de Havilland Mosquito B.35 (reconfigured to a FB Mk.VI, on display at the Alberta Aviation Museum).
Main article: List of de Havilland aircraft

Examples are on display at the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre.

[edit] de Havilland Canada

Bombardier (de Havilland Canada) Dash 8 of British European Airlines.
Bombardier (de Havilland Canada) Dash 8 of British European Airlines.
C-FGYN Adlair Aviation Ltd. de Havilland Beaver (DHC2) Mk.I on floats
C-FGYN Adlair Aviation Ltd. de Havilland Beaver (DHC2) Mk.I on floats
DHC-8 at Bristol Airport.
DHC-8 at Bristol Airport.

de Havilland Canada was formed in 1928 to build Moth aircraft for the training of Canadian airmen and continued after the war to build its own designs suited to the harsh Canadian operating environment. These are listed below. The DHC-2 through DHC-7 aircraft were all STOL designs. de Havilland (Canada) was eventually incorporated into the Bombardier group of companies and the Dash Eight remains in production with a particular emphasis being placed on its quiet operation in comparison to other aircraft of a similar size. In May 2005, Bombardier sold the rights to the out-of-production aircraft (DHC-1 through DHC-7) to Viking Air Ltd. of Sidney, British Columbia.

Aircraft produced by de Havilland (Canada) Aircraft include (chronologically):

Dash series turboprops are now branded as Q (means "quiet") Series Turboprops:

  • Q100: 33-37 seats. Original model
  • Q200: 33-37 seats. Enhanced engines; "Hot/High" version of the -100
  • Q300: 50-56 seats. Stretched -100 series
  • Q400: 68-78 seats. Features 6-blade, low speed props for low noise

[edit] de Havilland Australia

The 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 Second World 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 in RAAF service 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 six - eight 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 three de Havilland Gypsy Major Mk-10 4s. 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.

[edit] de Havilland engines

Main article: de Havilland Engine Company

As well as a prolific aircraft builder, de Havilland was also a significant producer of aero engines. This went against usual practise- usually engines are designed and produced by a dedicated company. The successful "Gypsy" and the later developments such as the Gypsy Major were successful and popular power units, being used in nearly all of de Havilland's light designs and several aircraft from other manufacturers. Gypsy engines were relatively unusual by the 1930s/40s because they were in-line engines, at a time when radial or opposed-action engine layouts were more popular. The de Havilland company was also a competitor to Rolls-Royce in the early years of the jet engine development, building the "Goblin" and "Ghost" engines for their jet fighters.

A privately owned de Havilland Sea Vixen (G-CVIX) at an air show in 2005.
A privately owned de Havilland Sea Vixen (G-CVIX) at an air show in 2005.

[edit] Trivia

  • The site of the former Hatfield Aerodrome, where de Havilland was based, is now used by the University of Hertfordshire for its de Havilland campus, which opened in 2003. The site also includes a business park. As well as the university campus, the area also includes several streets named after de Havilland aircraft [1].
  • One of de Havilland's trademarks was that the name of the aircraft type was painted on using a particularly elegant Roman typeface, all in capital letters. When there was a strike at the plant, the artisans who painted the name on the planes used the same typeface to make the workers' protest signs.

[edit] External links

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