Aircraft Manufacturing Co: DH.16
Note: This is a sub-section of Aircraft Manufacturing Co (Airco)
The Airco DH.16 was a British four-seat commercial biplane of the 1910s designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, the chief designer at Airco.
The DH.16 was a re-designed Airco DH.9A with a wider fuselage with an enclosed cabin seating four passengers. The prototype first flew at Hendon Aerodrome in March 1919. Only nine aircraft were built, all but one being delivered to Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited.
Aircraft Transport and Travel used the first aircraft for pleasure flying before inaugurating a London-Paris service on 25 August 1919. One aircraft was sold in Argentina to the River Plate Aviation Company to operate a cross-river service between Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
As well as the London (Hounslow)-Paris service, Aircraft Transport and Travel also operated a Croydon Airport to Amsterdam service on behalf of KLM. Aircraft Transport and Travel aircraft G-EALU flew the first KLM service between London and Amsterdam on 17 May 1920.
1920 Aircraft Transport and Travel closed down and the surviving seven aircraft were stored. Two were later used for newspaper delivery flights, the other five were scrapped. One of the two crashed in a fatal accident on 10 January 1923 and the type was withdrawn and scrapped.
Variants
The first six aircraft were powered by a 320 hp Rolls Royce Eagle inline piston engine, the last three aircraft were fitted with the more powerful 450 hp Napier Lion engine.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia