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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1924.PDF
5nPTEMBER 27TH, 1945 FLIGHT 547 D.H." (CONTI N UED) FOR TRAINEE AND TRAINED : (Right) The Tiger Moth, on whichthousands of pilots have been trained and (above) the renowned Mosquito which, in its many versions, proved such 5. scourge to the enemy. Itwas a fighter, fighter-bomber and big-bomb carrier. of the characteristic Moth features, it differed in severalrespects, notably in the wing arrangement. Instead of the vertical biplane wings of the Moth, the Tiger Moth had thewings staggered and swept back. Although it was not built in greal numbers, mention shouldbe made here of a very remarkable machine, the D.H.83 Fox Moth. It was a biplane with cabin seating for four passengersand the pilot placed in the open, behind the wings and cabin. What was remarkable about the Fox Moth was that it carriedas disposable load something like 95 per cent, of its own tare weight. It was thus extremely economical. One of thesemachines fitted with floats was used by Mr. John Grierson on one of his arctic journeys.Next in chronological order came a machine which laid the foundation for a long line of small economical transport air-craft. It was the D.H.84 Dragon and was designed with the Hillman Romford-Paris route in mind. It shared with theFox Moth some of that machine's excellent pay load qualities in that it carried as disposable load 82.5 per cent, of its tareweight. It was a twin-engined biplane and the first aircraft to make unsubsidised flying possible. 1933 was a remarkable year in the history of the de Havil-land firm. No fewer than three new models made their first flights in that year, and evidence of the way in which thecompany catered for both the " personal " and the commercial market is afforded by the way in which, not only in this year,but in most years, lighter types alternated with heavier. Men- tion has been made of the Dragon D.H.84. This was followedby the D.H.85 Leopard Moth, a successor to the Puss Moth, which it resembled in a general way. It was a popular typefor the private owner-pilot, and it was given a fillip by the fact that it won the King's Cup air race that year, piloted byCapt. de Havilland. Towards the end of 1933 de Havillands broke into the " four-engined market" with the D.H.86. True to the sequence of light and heavy types alternating,4he D.H.87, which followed the Express Airliner, was a private- •wiier and club type. As distinct from the Leopard Moth, theHornet Moth was a biplane, at first with tapered wings and later with square wing tips.While the de Havilland engine business was increasing rapidly at home and abroad, the airscrew question was not being over-looked, and in 1934 t"e company acquired the licence to build Hamilton Standard controllable-pitch airscrews with metalblades. By now there is, of course, a wide range of models available, most of which have been used extensively duringthe war in a variety of aircraft. It was, too, in that year that the England-Australia race was held, for which de Havillands' designed and built the Comet (D.H.88). That machine set a new standard in aerodynamic efficiency, with its monoplanewing, retractable undercarriage and generally clean design. Piloted by Scott and Campbell Black, it won the race. Thespeed of the Comet was about 235 m.p.h. Turning from the ultra-refined to the utilitarian, the D.H.89Dragon Rapide, which followed the Comet in the series, became, m the years to follow, a wonderful small commercial type. Itcombined the economy of th« earlier Dragon with an improved Performance, and so well did it suit operating conditions inmany parts of the world that it is not until now that it is about to be supplanted by the new Dove monoplane of all-metal con-struction. By 1935 de Havillands had developed quite a characteristicbiplane outline, with wings of large span, narrow chord, high aspect ratio and very pronounced taper. In none of the typeswas this feature more marked than in the D.H.90 Dragonfly, a small twin-engined type in which the biplane bracing systemhad been reduced to two struts on each side, and inner of in- verted vee formation and a single outer 1-strut. Furthercleaning-up was achieved by mounting the Gipsy engines ahead of the leading edge and very low, fairing the undercarriagesinto the engine nacelles by " trouser legs." Modern Monoplanes With the type 90 de Havillands may be said to have reachedthe end of the biplane era. It was followed by a number of monoplanes, many of which became famous. Their mostambitious undertaking, up to that time, was the D.H.91 Albatross, of which two versions were projected, one a long-range mailplane and the other a passenger machine. With a gross weight around 30,000 lb., the Albatross was practicallytwice the loaded weight of the previous largest, the Hercules. In addition, it was incomparably "cleaner," much of thehigh-speed experience gained with the Comet having been made full use of in its design. It had a speed of 225 m.p.h. andciuised at 210 m.p.h. on 1,360 h.p. One of the interesting features of the Albatross was the pressure-duct cooling systemfor the Gipsy-TweLve engines. The year during which the Albatross was being developed,viz., the financial year 1935-36, was a great one in the history of the firm. The year closed with more orders on the booksthan ever before. The Hatfield factory had grown to three times the size visualised two years before. Aircraft productionexceeded one per day (including Sundays!). A total of 770 engines was produced, aggregating 130,000 h.p. The airscrewoutput was among the largest in the world. Associated com- panies had been formed in Australia, Canada, South Africa,Southern Rhodesia and India. For a great number of years de Havillands remained faithfulto all-wood, or at least mixed wood and metal construction. It had many advantages and had enabled the company toproduce new models quickly and, relatively, cheaply. By 1938 it was decided that the time had come to produce an all-metalaircraft incorporating stressed-skin construction. There is no denying the fact that the aviation world expected the firstattempt of the Hatfield factory to be just a little amateurish. After all, the firm had no previous experience, and it would notbe very strange if the new machine showed traces of the fact. To everyone's surprise, when the D.H.95 Flamingo appearedits "skinning" was remarkable for its smoothness and total absence of "waves." The Flamingo had no chance to get properly established inthe commercial world before war broke out, but a small number were completed and went into service in the R.A.F. Communi-cations Wing. With its two Bristol Perseus engines and good payload capacity, the Flamingo is a very useful type,and it is to be hoped that it may be revived. The war period, so far as the de Havilland company is con-cerned, has been entirely dominated by the Mosquito.
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