De Havilland

[VladTepes]

There were a packet
de Havilland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
but here's some of my favourites:

Tiger Moth




Chipmunk


Dove


Drover


Heron


Caribou




Vampire


Sea Venom


Sea Vixen









We have a good collection of De Havilland aircraft here:
Queensland Air Museum Home Page
from where many of the above photos were taken.


but wait, there's more!

Dragon Rapide & Dragonfly


Comet (a racing aeroplane)




Comet (as you can see, a different one!)







and saving the BEST until (almost) last:


Mosquito












and just to prove that, despite the above, they could design an ugly aircraft if they put their mind to it...

Flamingo

[JDNSW]

You missed a few significant ones. DeHavilland's fortunes were founded on the WW1 DH4 (although DeHavilland was the designer not the manufacturer). Their first success as a manufacturer was the DH Moth, with the even more successful DH60 Gipsy Moth, now with a DeHavilland engine as well as airframe, which was the aircraft that the Tiger Moth was a developed from.

Then there was the DH86 airliner, developed especially for Qantas to start international services, one of the better biplane airliners of the thirties.

The Albatross was one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed, and was the immediate predecessor of the Mosquito, more so than the Comet was. Consider that compared to the DC3, the then most popular modern airliner, first flying only two years earlier, the Albatross was 30% faster and 50% heavier - with the same total power, indicating how much better the aerodynamics were.

John

[Bearman]

Great aircraft. Quite a few ringers/stockmen owe their lives to the Drover which was operated by the RFDS in the 50's and 60's. I'm pretty sure Dehavilland was also the first commercial jet airliner produced in 1952 (the ill fated Comet). I would love to own one of the drovers but unfortunately my budget only stretches to a Dehavilland tinny which I have owned for many years.

[clean32]

i have quite a few hours in the DH89, as well as the tiger moth and chipmonk.

ground handling was always fun, you never had enough hands. swing and float were the other 2 problems as well as never let the fat guy sit down the back

[VladTepes]

At l;east one of the planes we have at QAM is ex RFDS

[Bearman]

i have quite a few hours in the DH89, as well as the tiger moth and chipmonk.

ground handling was always fun, you never had enough hands. swing and float were the other 2 problems as well as never let the fat guy sit down the back

Flying the Rapide must have been an experience. Where did you get to fly one of them.?

[Bearman]

I often wonder what happened to the Connair fleet of Doves and Herons. Connair was a small airline that used to do the Alice-Mt.Isa-Cairns run back in the 70's. One of their Herons had a prang on approach to Cairns airport back in the late 70's in bad weather and they folded afterwards.Connellan was based in Alice Springs and had a valuable contribution to early Aussie aviation history- look them up in google.

[clean32]

Flying the Rapide must have been an experience. Where did you get to fly one of them.?

AKU was / is based at Ardmore NZ not an aircraft to toss about but one you had to respect, more so for those of us who learnt in tin cans with heaps of stall buffeting and square wingtips, effective flaps etc

[JDNSW]

I am afraid my experience flying DH aircraft is limited to about half an hour in a Tiger Moth.

John

[Bearman]

AKU was / is based at Ardmore NZ not an aircraft to toss about but one you had to respect, more so for those of us who learnt in tin cans with heaps of stall buffeting and square wingtips, effective flaps etc

I reckon that would be an experience you will never forget. No luxuries like autopilot....Brian