de Havilland

The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer founded in 1920 when Airco, of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer and owner, was sold to BSA. De Havilland then set up a company under his name in September of that year at Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware, England. The company later moved to Hatfield in Hertfordshire, England. De Havilland Aircraft Company was responsible for producing the first passenger jet and other innovative aircraft. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland

de Havilland DH-82 Tiger Moth

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The de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until 1952 when many of the surplus aircraft entered civil operation. Many other nations used the Tiger Moth both in military and civil applications and the ubiquitous little trainer is still in great demand worldwide as a recreational aircraft. It is still occasionally used as a primary training aircraft, although now most Tiger Moths employed in training duties are used by pilots gaining experience for "taildragger" license ratings. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Tiger_Moth

DH 88 Tiger Moth, June 2007

De Havilland Tiger Moth recorded June 2007

de Havilland Vampire

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The de Havilland DH.100 Vampire was a British jet-engined fighter of the Second World War, the second jet-powered aircraft commissioned by the Royal Air Force during the War (the first being the Gloster Meteor), although it was not used in combat. The Vampire served with front line RAF squadrons until 1955 and continued in use as a trainer until 1966. It also served with many air forces worldwide, and set several aviation firsts and records. Almost 3,300 Vampires were built, a quarter of them under licence in other countries. The Vampire design was also developed into the de Havilland Venom fighter-bomber as well as naval Sea Vampire variants. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

de Havilland Vampire, August 2005

de Havilland Vampire, recorded August 2005

de Havilland Vampire T.11, WZ507, August 2009

Sound recording of de Havilland Vampire T.11 WZ507 (G-VTII), August 2009, Little Gransden

de Havilland DH-88 Comet

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The de Havilland DH.88 Comet was a twin-engined British aircraft that won the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race, a challenge for which it was specifically designed. It set many aviation records during the race and afterwards as a pioneer mail plane.

Despite previous British air racing successes, culminating in 1931 in the outright win of the Schneider Trophy, there was no British plane capable of putting up a challenge over the MacPherson course with its long overland stages. The de Havilland company stepped into the breach by offering to produce a limited run of 200 mph (322 km/h) racers if three were ordered by February 1934. The sale price of £5,000 each would by no means cover the development costs. In 1935, de Havilland suggested a high-speed bomber version of the DH.88 to the RAF, but the suggestion was rejected. (De Havilland later developed the de Havilland Mosquito along similar lines as the DH.88 for the high-speed bomber role.)

Three orders were indeed received, and de Havilland set to work. The airframe consisted of a wooden skeleton clad with spruce plywood, with a final fabric covering on the wings. A long streamlined nose held the main fuel tanks, with the low set central two-seat cockpit forming an unbroken line to the tail. The engines were essentially the standard Gipsy Six used on the Express and Dragon Rapide passenger planes, tuned for best performance with a higher compression ratio. The propellers were two-position variable pitch, manually set to fine before takeoff and changed automatically to coarse by a pressure sensor. The main undercarriage retracted upwards and backwards into the engine nacelles. The DH.88 could maintain altitude up to 4,000 ft (1,200 m) on one engine. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.88

DH 88 Comet Grosvenor House

A sound recording of the DH 88 Comet 'Grosvenor House' G-ACSS starting up at Old Warden.

The aircraft is not currently flown but they do a fast taxi along the airfield prior to some displays.