Airco DH.9

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Airco DH.9
Airco DH.9A
Type: Bomber , airliner
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Aircraft Manufacturing Company

First flight:

July 1917

Commissioning:

1917

Number of pieces:

approx. 4000

DH 9a with aerial bombs

The Airco DH.9 was a single-engine, two-seat double - decker from the British company Airco .

Development and war effort

The aircraft was the successor model to the previous British standard day bomber in World War I , the Airco DH.4 , and was built directly on this in terms of construction in order to be able to continue using the production lines built at Airco without major modifications. In the prototype of the DH.9, for example, the wings, tail unit and chassis of the DH.4 were used, but a new, aerodynamically more favorable fuselage cell was developed.

Side view Airco DH.9

The crew's greatest point of criticism of the DH.4, the poor communication possibilities due to the large distances between the cockpits of the pilot and the observer, was countered with the DH.9 by relocating the pilot's cockpit to the rear of the lower wing. The prototype was powered by a BHP engine from Galloway Engineering Co. (also known as Galloway Adriatic ) with an output of 172 kW (234 hp).

After the flight tests, which had started in July 1917, Airco was extremely satisfied with this model, so that both Airco and its subcontractors switched from the DH.4 to the DH.9.

After some machines had been equipped with the BHP engine manufactured by Siddeley, the Siddeley Puma version, derived from this engine, was later installed in most DH.9s. However, since the BHP engine never achieved the projected power, a 172 kW (234 hp) engine had to be used instead of the 224 kW (305 hp) provided, so that the DH.9 ultimately offered less flight performance than its predecessor, the DH.4 . Nevertheless, the production of the DH.9 was retained; a total of about 3200 pieces were made and sent to war, where the model suffered high losses on the French western front and could therefore never replace the DH.4.

the post war period

Airco DH.9 of the Dutch Air Force (Koninklijke Luchtmacht) on the island of Flores ( Dutch East
Indies ), 1927

Surplus copies were delivered to the air forces in a large number of countries after the end of World War I. In addition, around 500 pieces were manufactured under license in Spain by Hispano-Suiza de Guadalajara , a few copies in the Netherlands and ten machines in Belgium .

In addition to the DH.9 with standard engines, a number of units were equipped with a wide variety of engine configurations, the most powerful units, the Bristol Jupiter IV with 338 kW (487 hp), were installed in machines of the South African Air Force ( SAAF ) with the designation M'pala II .

Civil use

The British government approved the resumption of civil aviation with effect from July 15, 1919. On the same day, England's first airline , Aircraft Transport & Travel Ltd. (AT&T), their first paying passenger on a charter flight from London to Paris using a de Havilland DH.9B . Before it had to cease operations at the end of 1920 due to economic problems, AT&T owned two DH.4, four DH.4A, 16 DH.9 / DH.9B, eight DH.16 and three DH.18.

Ten DH.9s made up a large part of the Handley Page Transport fleet of aircraft in 1920 , which were mainly used alongside the large HP 0/400 . The type was not as successful with the other British airlines, and AT&T sold four of their DH.9s to the Dutch KLM , on whose behalf they had previously flown to Amsterdam. Another modified version with a two-seater cabin was the DH.9C, recognizable by its swept wings. Five of these planes were used by de Havilland Airplane Hire Service for charter and taxi flights.

variants

Airco DH.9A

Packhard Liberty 12-cylinder engines were ordered in the USA to remedy the poor performance of the DH.9. Since the DH.10 was already being manufactured at Airco at this point and there was therefore no free capacity for the production of these machines called DH.9A, the modifications were transferred to Westland Aircraft Works. Not only was the engine adjusted there, but other changes were made, and so a fully developed aircraft was created there.

A total of 885 copies of this machine were made by Westland and other subcontractors, which was delivered to the armed forces from June 1918 and quickly acquired the reputation of the best strategic bomber of the First World War. So this type was still produced after the end of the war and was not taken out of service until 1921.

The machines known as “Ninak” became known not least because of the scheduled mail service between Cairo and Baghdad.

Airco DH.9B

  • converted civil version, former bomber with two passenger seats (pilot sat in the middle between the passengers)

Airco DH.9C

  • also converted former bombers with three passenger seats (one seat in front of, two behind the pilot)

Airco DH.9J

  • The end of the 1920s modernized DH.9 and M'pala I of the South African Air Force as a training aircraft of de Havilland School of Flying were used

(Note: After the bankruptcy of Airco in 1920, part of the production facilities was taken over by the company of the former chief designer of Airco, Geoffrey de Havilland, of the de Havilland Aircraft Company . The DH.9 and its variants continued to be produced by de Havilland and serviced; therefore the following variants no longer carried the name Airco.)

de Havilland DH.9AJ Stag

  • single prototype with improved main landing gear, equipped with a Bristol Jupiter VI radial engine with 347 kW (472 hp)

de Havilland DH.9R

  • One-and-a-half-decker built for racing events based on a DH.9 with a 347 kW (472 PS) Napier Lion  II Y-engine

Engineering Division USD-9A

  • nine machines built in the USA based on the DH.9 with slight modifications

Engineering Division USD-9B

  • single USD-9A with a V12 Liberty 12A engine with an output of 313 kW (426 hp)

Military use

A DH.9 in the Imperial War Museum in Duxford
Afghanistan emirate 1921Afghanistan Afghanistan
AustraliaAustralia Australia
BelgiumBelgium Belgium
BoliviaBolivia Bolivia
British IndiaBritish India British India
ChileChile Chile
EstoniaEstonia Estonia
First Hellenic RepublicFirst Hellenic Republic Greece
IrelandIreland Ireland
  • Irish Air Service / Irish Air Corps
Canada 1921Canada Canada
Flag of Hejaz 1920.svg Kingdom of Hejaz
LatviaLatvia Latvia
NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands
New ZealandNew Zealand New Zealand
ParaguayParaguay Paraguay
PeruPeru Peru
PolandPoland Poland
Romania kingdomRomania Romania
Soviet Union 1923Soviet Union Soviet Union
Spain 1875Spain Spain
South Africa 1912South African Union South African Union
SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
TurkeyTurkey Turkey
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
United States 48United States United States
UruguayUruguay Uruguay

Technical specifications

Parameter Airco DH.9 Airco DH.9A
crew 2 (pilot and bombardier)
length 9.27 m 9.22 m
span 12.92 m 14.01 m
height 3.44 m 3.45 m
Wing area 40.32 m² 45.22 m²
Wing extension
Empty mass 1012 kg 1270 kg
Max. Takeoff mass 1508 kg 2107 kg
Top speed 178 km / h 198 km / h
Ascent time to approx. 1980 m altitude 10:20 min 8:55 min
Service ceiling 4725 m 5105 m
Range approx. 700 km approx. 950 km
Engines a six-cylinder in - line Siddeley Puma engine with 172 kW (234 hp) a Packard Liberty V12 engine ; 298 kW (405 hp)
Armament a rigid, forward-firing 7.7 mm Vickers machine gun , one or two 7.7 mm Lewis machine guns on a slewing ring, 209 kg bomb load

See also

List of aircraft types

literature

  • Lennart Andersson: Wings Over the Desert. Aviation on the Arabian Peninsula. Part One Saudi Arabia. Air Enthusiast, No. 112, July / August 2004, ISSN  0143-5450 , pp. 39-43.
  • CH Barnes: Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. Putnam, London 1976, ISBN 0-370-00030-7 .
  • F. Gernahm: Estonian Air Power 1918–1945. In: Air Enthusiast. No 18, April-July 1982, ISSN  0143-5450 , pp. 61-76.
  • AJ Jackson: De Havilland Aircraft since 1909. 3rd ed., Putnam, London 1987, ISBN 0-85177-802-X .
  • Jim Winchester (Ed.): Bombers of the 20th Century. Airlife Publishing Ltd., London 2003, ISBN 1-84037-386-5 .

Web links

Commons : Airco DH.9  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files