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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0405.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 26, 1934 V THE DE HAVILLAND " DRAGON SIX" This week we are able to publish the first details to be released of an aeroplane developed to cater for the speeding up of air lines similar to those in this country. It is the inevitable result of steady development i WITZERLAND is to receive the first " Dragon Six," as the model which is herein described has been bought by Herr R. Herzig, of the Ostschweiz Aero Ges. for operation on the line St. Gaul, Zurich and Berne, which will connect with the lines to Marseilles and Barcelona. Another of these new machines will also soon be on its way to South Africa The " Dragon Six," or D.H.89, to give it its works designation, is obviously the outcome of improving a stan- dard " Dragon " in the light of knowledge gained with the four-engined D.H.86, which was described in FLIGHT of February 22, 1934. It resembles the latter machine perhaps even more than the standard " Dragon," because those improvements very largely consist of alterations to external features, of the kind which immediately catch the eye. For example, the wings are very like those of the D.H.86, that is, heavily tapered, with wire bracing in the front bay only. Similarly, each engine is mounted over one unit of the landing gear in a most distinctive manner. As will be seen from the table, by these im- provements and by the use of two " Gipsy Six " engines, the cruising speed has been raised to 140 m.p.h. (225 knt/h), and the machine has quite a considerable ceiling on one engine with full load. From a considera- tion of these main details it is immediately obvious that the " Dragon Six " is a machine which is particularly suitable for the development of air services in all parts of the world. The wing construction does not differ very much from that used in the D.H.86. The biplane structure is braced by one pair of streamline-section steel tube struts and one built-up steel strut of similar section. This strut is, inci- dentally, spot welded, a manufacturing process which de Havillands have not so far used very extensively. The top planes have spindled spruce spars throughout their entire length and each is in one piece as far as the root fittings either side of the top of the fuselage. The bottom wings have spars of the same construction as far as the pair of inter-plane struts. Inside those, the surface is in the form of a bottom centre section which carries the engines and SPEEDY AND ROOMY: Two views of the " Dragon Six " taken recently at Stag Lane. (FLIGHT Photos.) 405 c
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