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In 1920 Geoffrey de Havilland changed the name of his company Airco, where he had previously been chief designer, to the De Havilland Aircraft Company.
The new company was based at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, England.
Initially de Havilland concentrated on single and two seat biplanes, essentially continuing the DH line of aircraft built by Airco, but engined with de Havillands own Gypsy engines. These included the Gipsy and Tiger Moths. These aircraft set many aviation records, many piloted by de Havilland himself. Amy Johnson flew solo from England to Australia in a Gypsy Moth in 1930, the flight taking 19.5 days.
The Moth line of aircraft continued with the more refined (and enclosed) Hornet Moth and Moth Minor , the later being a low wing monoplane constructed of wood.
De Havilland continued to produce high performance aircraft including the high speed twin piston engine DH.88 Comet mailplane, one of which became famous in its red livery as the winner of the MacRobertson Air RaceThe MacRobertson Trophy Air Race took place October, 1934 as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia). The idea of the race was devised by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and a prize fund of $75,000 was put up from England to Australia.
The high performance designs and wooden construction methods culminated in perhaps the most famous De Havilland aircraft - the MosquitoThe de Havilland Mosquito ("the wooden wonder") was a military aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during World War II. It was a twin engine aircraft with the pilot and navigator sitting side-by-side. Unorthodox in design, it utilised a wooden str, constructed primarily of wood because of the shortage of aluminium during the war.
After the Second World War De Havilland continued with leading edge designs in both the military and civil field, but several public disasters doomed the company as an independent entity.
The most famous of these were the loss of several CometThis article deals with the de Havilland Comet jet airliner. For the 1930s racing aircraft see de Havilland DH. 88 The de Havilland Comet of Britain was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Design work began in 1946 under Ronald Bishop and the inten jetliners. Less well known, but equally disastrous, was the explosion of the Sea Vixen prototype during the 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada. Farnborough Airshow , which killed members of the public.
De Havillands was bought by Hawker-SiddeleyHawker-Siddeley was a British aircraft manufacturing company. The company went through a long evolution before emerging as one of only two major manufacturers in the 1960s, and eventually being merged into British Aerospace in the 1980s. Hawker Engineerin, before incorporation into British AerospaceBritish Aerospace (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, now part of BAE SYSTEMS. The company was formed on April 29, 1977 from British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation. In 1979, joined Air. In this period many designs started by De Havilland came into production including the Trident, HS-146 (later BAe-146), HS-125 , (later BAe-125 ).
De Havilland Aircraft: