DeHavilland tries again...

[Hauksbee 103]

 

AirCo DH.10 (Amiens) Twin-Engine Medium Biplane Bomber Aircraft

Just under 260 examples of the Airco DH.10 were completed in all - though the type arrived very late for the fighting of World War 1.

 Updated: 6/7/2017; Authored By Staff Writer; Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com

In the final year of World War 1 (1914-1918), Geoffrey de Havilland of AirCo developed an all-new, twin-engined biplane bomber in the form of the "DH.10". A first-flight was had on March 4th, 1918 and the type was introduced in November of that year - the same month the war officially came to a close. As such, the series did not leave its imprint on the Grand War and production was limited to 258 units with most arriving in the ensuring post-war period. The United Kingdom became its sole global military operator and the bomber served across some eight total squadrons in one form or another. Some continued on in civilian service in both the United Kingdom and the United States into the early-1920s.

The DH.10 was built in response to a British requirement for a new bomber to help end the war. de Havilland revised the earlier DH.3 series biplane platform for the specification a prototype was quickly arranged for testing. This form - the "Amiens Mk I" - carried 2 x Siddeley "Puma" engines of 230 horsepower output and configured in a "pusher" arrangement (propellers facing rearward). The design did not impress British authorities who deemed it too slow so this led to a revision of the already-revised aircraft, now fitting 2 x Rolls-Royce "Eagle" VIII series engines of 360 horsepower each in a more traditional conventional "puller" set up. In this form - "Amiens Mk II - the project succeeded. However, due to the unavailability of Eagle engines, the production model - "Amiens Mk III" - was flown with American "Liberty" 12 series engines of 395 horsepower and it was this model that proved the mark-of-choice for the Royal Air Force (RAF) who officially adopted the Amiens as the DH.10.

 

Amiens Mk III production totaled 221 examples. The Amiens Mk IIIA (DH.10A) was a version numbering 32 examples that flew with their engines fitted to the lower wing assemblies (as opposed to being suspended between the lower and upper wing assemblies as in the Mk III). The Amiens IIIC (DH.10C) was a limited-production model (five examples) that was flown with Eagle engines as insurance against availability of the American Liberty engines.

 

( WWI was not kind to the memory of DeHavillad's attempts to design aircraft. The DH-2 was known as the 'Spinning Coffin'. The DH-5 was the fighter that pilots hoped somebody else would fly. And then there was the DH-10. DeHavilland didn't get a winner until the early 30's when he initiated the "Moth" family of planes.[Hauksbee] )

 

Airco was bought by the BSA Company, but BSA was interested only in using the company factories for car production. Raising £20,000, de Havilland bought the relevant assets and in 1920 formed the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware, where he and his company designed and built a large number of aircraft, including the Moth family. In 1933 the company moved to Hatfield Aerodrome, in Hertfordshire. One of his roles was as test pilot for the company's aircraft. He was believed to have said "we could have had jets" in reference to the ignoring of jet engine possibilities prior to the start of the 1939–45 world war. His company's aircraft, particularly the Mosquito, played a formidable role in that war. In 1944 he bought out his friend and engine designer Frank Halfords engine design consultancy company, forming the de Havilland Engine Company with Halford as head. Halford had previously designed a number of engines for de Havilland, including the de Havilland Gipsy and de Havilland Gipsy Major. Halford's first gas turbine design entered production as the de Havilland Goblin powering de Havilland's first jet, the Vampire.

 

His son, Geoffrey Jr, carried out the first flights of the Mosquito and Vampire and was killed in 1946 flying the jet-powered DH 108 Swallow while diving at or near the speed of sound.

 

De Havilland controlled the company until it was bought by the Hawker Siddeley Company in 1960.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Hauksbee

[Mike Dora 171]

Dear Hauksbee,

 

Permit me to dispute your characterisation of de Havilland lack of success in WW1. From the British perspective, the DH2 was the antidote to the 1915-16 "Fokker Scourge", even if it may have been inexcusably draughty (cf. JTB McCudden's "Flying Fury").

 

Also, I notice you don't mention the very successful DH4 and DH9A? ..mind you, you'll notice I don't mention the DH9.. ;)

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

A

[Hauksbee 103]

Mike: I take your point. But the DH-2 had (probably) the worst handling characteristics of any WWI airplane. I know, there are some close contenders, but, for my money, the DH-2 takes home the marbles. Not for nothing was it called the "Spinning Coffin" and should you get the nose a hair above the horizon, you'll quickly find yourself in a stall.  

 

I simply forgot about the DH-4. Being a light bomber, it doesn't get much press. And the DH-9A...I never heard of.            

[33LIMA 972]

Hauksbee, we should not condem WW1 planes based on pilots - often inexperienced - who 'gave a dog a bad name' because they were flying machines they could barely control based on poor, primitive or limited flying training. I cited an expert opinion (backed up by a demonstration) on the DH2 in a mission report, and reproduce this again here:

 

"Led by Lanoe Hawker, No.24 Squadron (DH2s), Britain's first single-seater scout squadron, arrived in France on 8 February 1916 in great excitement but was immediately absorbed in a crisis of its own. The day after their arrival, one of the flight commanders, on the first flight of a DH2 from a French airfield, got into a spin and failed to recover. Five days later, another pilot spun in, and this time the machine caught fire. It had happened before, earning the DH2 the grisly sobriquet of the 'spinning incinerator'...Hawker responded by taking up a DH2 and, according to his biographer, spinning it from every conceivable angle, engine on and engine off, and demonstrating how, with correct remedial action, and provided there was sufficient height, it always recovered."

 

Ralph Barker, 'A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps', Constable & Robinson, 2002

 

Granted, actual or alleged prone-ness to being crashed by novice pilots - or more experienced ones who are careless or unlucky - is one criterion for judging the effectiveness of a wartime aircraft, but is not necessarily the most important one.

 

I don't have it to hand, but in the Profile Publications DH5 booket, a pilot is quoted acknowledging that the type was a better machine than its reputation indicated.

[Hauksbee 103]

Well, when you put it that way, I've got to admit that, if I'm down on DH-2's, it's because of my OFF/WOFF experience with them. I've had two strikes against me: untrained and unexperienced.