Geoffrey de
Havilland founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company in September
1920 with financial support from his previous employer, George Holt
Thomas of Airco. It developed the famous line of Moth aircraft,
beginning in 1925 with the DH.60 Cirrus Moth, designed for club and
private owner use, the DH.82 Tiger Moth, the more refined and
enclosed Hornet Moth and the Moth Minor.
de
Havilland’s first foreign subsidiary was set up in Australia
in 1927, moving to Sydney in 1930. It acted as an agency for the
parent company, with assembly, repair and support facilities for
the company’s popular sporting and airliner types. de
Havilland Canada was formed in 1928 to build Moth aircraft to train
Canadian airmen and continued after the war to build its own
designs to suit the harsh Canadian environment.
In 1934, de Havilland’s designed and built the DH.86 - a fast ten-seater airliner powered by four Gipsy Six, six cylinder engines for the Australian market. 62 aircraft were built and operators included Qantas of Australia and Imperial Airways. More successful than the DH.86 was the DH.89 Dragon Rapide, essentially a scaled-down version of the DH.86, this twin-engined aircraft had a single pilot and could carry up to eight passengers. 728 Rapides were built and it was widely used for airline and charter work and saw service with the Royal Air Force.
During the Second World War, de Havilland developed its most famous aircraft, the Mosquito fighter bomber that was constructed primarily of wood due to a shortage of aluminium.
After the war ended, de
Havilland continued creating leading-edge designs for the military
including the DH.100 Vampire fighter, one of the RAF’s first
jet aircraft and the DH.110 Sea Vixen for the Royal Navy. But it
was in the civil arena that de Havilland’s had its biggest
impact. In July 1949, company test pilot, John Cunningham, made the
first flight of the prototype DH.106 Comet. This four-engined all
metal jet aircraft entered service with BOAC in 1952 and became the
world’s first commercial jet airliner.
However, a number of accidents and increasing global competition meant that de Havilland could not continue as an independent business and it was acquired by the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1960.
