This has to be the definitive history of De Havilland, a leading aviation pioneer and great success story. The level of detail and research is first rate with many illustrations – Most Highly Recommended.
NAME: De Havilland Enterprises, A History FILE: R2486 AUTHOR: Graham M Simons PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: hard back PAGES: 244 PRICE: £25.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWI, World War One, World War 1, First World War, The Great War, aviation, peacetime aviation, RAF, RNAS, RFC, pilots, aircrew, record breakers, races, civil aviation, pioneers, minor wars, WWII, World War 2, Second World War, Korean War, naval aviation
ISBN: 1-47386-138-1
IMAGE: B2486.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/kxl3z6r LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This has to be the definitive history of De Havilland, a leading aviation pioneer and great success story. The level of detail and research is first rate with many illustrations – Most Highly Recommended. Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland was one of the true aviation pioneers who climbed from humble beginnings to develop some of the finest warplanes of the Great War, continue on through peacetime with innovative and record breaking aircraft, into World War Two with some truly great aircraft and into the jet age. In Britain and through his companies in Australia and Canada, Sir Geoffrey kept breaking the design barriers. Naturally, not every de Havilland design was an immediate and total success, but that is the price of innovation and daring to dream. Not every design left the drawing board to soar from the factory. Even those that stayed dreams contributed to other designs that shattered the aviation world. The challenge for a historian is finding the space to do justice to every great de Havilland design that became an aviation leader. In this book the author has used a format that ensures every de Havilland design is covered and that all of the great successes receive adequate coverage. When de Havilland set out in 1908, with a loan from his grandfather, he was competing with all the early pioneers. It was only seven years from the first tentative controlled flight at Kitty Hawk by the Wright brothers. 1908 was the year of the first flight by a British built powered aircraft, Sam Cody's powered kite, that immediately followed on from the extensive trials from 1903 to 1908 by the Royal Navy, with Cody and his man-carrying kites. De Havilland's starting product was an aero engine and this was the part of aviation development that was absolutely critical. Many early aircraft designs failed through the lack of a suitable engine. Working from basic rented workshops, de Havilland soon began to develop not only aviation products, but a successful business. Sir Geoffrey was one of the first pilots to qualify, being awarded Aero Club Certificate number 53 in 1911. His success was cemented during WWI and from there he never looked back. He worked for the Government Aircraft factory at Farnborough was responsible for the FE2, SE2, and BS1 that began to take the GAF into contention after some very lacklustre designs. They still had to struggle when Sopwith held such a lead in combat aircraft design with a string of incremental developments from the outstanding One and a Half Strutter built for the RNAS that kept ahead of enemy designs, its Triplane inspiring the Fokker company to design their triplane made famous by the Red Baron. Sir Geoffrey hit a winning streak with his DH1 that incrementally developed through to the outstanding DH4A that produced 6,295 aircraft at a time when many designs saw less than 100 built. The DH9 saw large rate production and these aircraft were also used by Britain's allies. At the end of the Great War, there was a mountain of surplus military aircraft and commercial life was hard for all manufacturers, including de Havilland, but this did nothing to slow the rate of Sir Geoffrey's innovation. In light aircraft, he devised the incredible Moth family which sold in quantity and proved to offer a long life, with many still flying a 100 years later and showing no signs of retiring to museums as static displays. The Tiger Moth became the principle RAF training aircraft and many WWII pilots from Britain and its Allies started out on a Tiger Moth. Between the World Wars. De Havilland was very active in designing record breaking aircraft of which the first Comet prop twin was a good example. In World War Two, the Mosquito was to be an amazing triumph, a bomber that was faster than contemporary fighters and carried a bomb load to equal some four engine heavy bombers, offering high altitude bombing accuracy and unrivalled low level, high speed, precision bombing. French householders were amazed to look down into the cockpits of Mosquito bombers flying down their streets at high speed to make precision attacks on Gestapo and SS run prisons. Inevitably, this terrific performance turned the Mosquito into the first true multi- role combat aircraft, performing as a fighter, night fighter, intruder, bomber, fighter bomber, maritime attack aircraft, photorecon aircraft, trainer, carrier aircraft. As a bomber it did, with a crew of two, what many a heavy bomber achieved with a crew of nine, then did bombing jobs that no heavy bomber could attempt. If that was the only aircraft developed by de Havilland for WWII it would have been a huge achievement. However, de Havilland produced the Vampire which was the second British jet fighter, flying before the end of the war and achieving carrier landings on some of the smaller RN carriers. The Mosquito led to the Sea Hornet which was a very fast prop plane at the start of the jet age, but the Hornet is also notable for its pioneering of new techniques with metal to wood and metal to metal bonding. How could a company top that? But de Havilland did, with the Comet jetliner, the first in the world. It was also followed by the very advanced Sea Vixen, the Sea Venom night fighter and the Trident airliner. In Canada, de Havilland also developed the ultimate bush aircraft , the Beaver and the outstanding Caribou. A great story that has been told well.