DH.34 | |
---|---|
Role | Airliner |
Manufacturer | de Havilland |
Designer | Geoffrey de Havilland |
First flight | 26 March 1922 |
Introduction | 1922 |
Retired | 1926 |
Primary users | Imperial Airways Daimler Airway Instone Air Line |
Produced | 1922 |
Number built | 12 |
The de Havilland DH.34 was a single engined British biplane airliner built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in the 1920s. 12 were built, with the DH.34 serving with Imperial Airways and its predecessors for several years.
By 1921, enough experience had been gained with operation of the de Havilland DH.18 to realise that aircraft needed to be more efficient to improve the economics of air travel. de Havilland therefore built the ten-passenger DH.29 monoplane, while starting work on the design of the DH.32, a biplane of similar size and capacity to the eight-passenger DH.18, but with a less powerful but more economical Rolls-Royce Eagle engine. [1] [2] Consultation with potential users resulted in work on the DH.29 and DH.32 being stopped and a new airliner, the DH.34 biplane designed, with a similar fuselage to the DH.29, accommodating nine passengers. [2]
The DH.34 had a wooden, plywood-clad fuselage, with the cockpit (for two pilots) being positioned ahead of the wings and the passenger cabin. It had two-bay wooden wings and was powered by a Napier Lion engine, which was fitted for inertia starting, avoiding the necessity for hand swinging of the propeller to start the engine. [1] Unusually, the design of the aircraft allowed an entire spare engine to be carried on board across the rear of the passenger cabin. The cabin door's unusual shape was to allow the engine to be loaded and unloaded, and a specially-fitted 'porthole' on the other side of the cabin would be removed to allow the propeller boss to protrude out the side of the aircraft. [3] Spare engines were not carried routinely (the DH.34's payload was too low to carry both passengers and a spare engine) but this facility was used by operators to quickly fly spare engines out to aircraft that had suffered breakdown.
Two DH.34s were ordered by the Daimler Airway, as part of an initial batch of nine aircraft, with the first prototype (registered G-EBBQ) flying on 26 March 1922. [1] The stalling speed of 63 mph (101 km/h) was too high and was blamed for a fatal crash in 1923, so extensions were fitted to the upper wings, increasing the wingspan from 51 ft 4 in (15.65 m) to 54 ft 4 in (16.56 m), [4] with the revised aircraft designated the DH.34B. [5]
The first DH.34 was delivered to Daimler on 31 March 1922 and entered service with Daimler on the Croydon-Paris service on 2 April 1922. [6] [7] Daimler operated a total of six D.H.34s, four of which were leased from the Air Council, with Instone Air Line operating a further four, all leased. One aircraft was built to the order of the Soviet airline Dobrolyot. [8]
When Imperial Airways was formed on 1 April 1924, by the merger of Daimler Airway, Instone Air Line, Handley Page Transport and the British Marine Air Navigation Company, it inherited six D.H.34s, retaining the type in service until March 1926, when it retired the DH.34, abandoning single-engined aircraft in favour of multi-engined aircraft. [9] The Lion engines of the DH.34s were removed and used by Imperial's fleet of Handley Page W.10s. [10]
The DH.34s were used heavily on the cross channel air services, with the fleet flying 8,000 hours in the first nine months of operation, [7] and the second aircraft flying over 100,000 mi (160,000 km) without overhaul. [7] Six D.H.34s were lost in accidents during the four years of their operation, of which several were fatal. [7]
In November 1923 an excellent air safety record for the "English Air Service" was broken by "a disaster in the London-Birmingham air route" when a DH.34 carrying only 3 passengers crashed near the Ivenhoe Beacon near Leighton Buzzard where it was seen to be in difficulties before suddenly nose-diving at high speed into the ground killing all on board. [11]
Data from The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft [7]
General characteristics
Performance
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
Related lists
The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918.
The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its outdated plywood construction.
The de Havilland Express, also known as the de Havilland D.H.86, was a four-engined passenger aircraft manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company between 1934 and 1937.
The de Havilland DH.95 Flamingo was a British twin-engined high-wing monoplane airliner first flown on 22 December 1938. During the Second World War some were used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a transport and general communications duties.
The Vickers Vulcan was a British single-engine biplane airliner of the 1920s built by Vickers Limited at Brooklands Aerodrome, Surrey. It carried eight passengers and a pilot.
The de Havilland DH.91 Albatross was a four-engined British transport aircraft of the 1930s manufactured by de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited. Seven aircraft were built between 1938 and 1939.
The de Havilland DH.84 Dragon is a successful small commercial aircraft that was designed and built by the de Havilland company.
The Handley Page W.8, W.9 and W.10 were British two- and three-engine medium-range biplane airliners designed and built by Handley Page.
The DH.83 Fox Moth was a successful small biplane passenger aircraft from the 1930s powered by a single de Havilland Gipsy Major I inline inverted engine, manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company.
The de Havilland DH.90 Dragonfly is a 1930s British twin-engined luxury touring biplane built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Hatfield Aerodrome.
The de Havilland DH.50 was a 1920s British large single-engined biplane transport built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware, and licence-built in Australia, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia.
The de Havilland DH.66 Hercules was a British 1920s seven-passenger, trimotor airliner built by de Havilland Aircraft Company. With the Hercules, Imperial Airways took over responsibility for the airmail service from the Royal Air Force, which had been operating the obsolete Airco DH.10 Amiens.
The Airco DH.16 was a British four-seat commercial biplane of the 1910s designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, the chief designer at Airco.
The de Havilland DH.18 was a single-engined British biplane transport aircraft of the 1920s built by de Havilland.
The Bristol Ten-seater and Bristol Brandon were British single-engine biplane transport aircraft built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in the early 1920s. Only three were built, two of which were used as civil transports and one of which served with the Royal Air Force.
Daimler Airway was an airline subsidiary of the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)'s Daimler Company. It was created to use some of the assets of the failed ventures Airco and its subsidiary, Aircraft Transport and Travel, which was acquired by BSA in February 1920.
The 1922 Picardie mid-air collision took place on 7 April 1922 over Picardie, France, involving British and French passenger-carrying biplanes. The midair collision occurred in foggy conditions. A British aircraft flying from Croydon to Paris with only mail on board collided with a French aircraft flying three passengers from Paris to Croydon, which resulted in seven deaths.
The de Havilland DH.54 Highclere was a single-engined 15-passenger biplane airliner designed to replace the DH.34. Its development ended when Imperial Airways decided to use only multi-engined types.
The 1923 Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.34 crash occurred on 14 September 1923 when a de Havilland DH.34 of Daimler Airway operating a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Croydon to Manchester crashed at Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, England, killing all five people on board.
British Air Transport – The Pioneering Days 1919–1934 is an 8.44-metre (27.7 ft)-long mural by William Kempster depicting, from left to right, a chronological sequence of events in the history of British aviation on the London to Paris route starting on the left with Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in 1919 and finishing on the right at Croydon Aerodrome in 1931. The most recent aircraft shown is the Short L.17 Scylla of 1934.