Remembering de Havilland: The Rise And Fall of a British Aviation Powerhouse!

de Havilland: a DH106 Comet 1 in BOAC colors sat in an aviation museum hangar

Today, at least in Britain, the name “de Havilland” is synonymous with aviation. Indeed, throughout its existence, the de Havilland Aircraft Company was one of the most prestigious British aircraft manufacturers, behind only its parent company: Hawker Siddeley.

Despite having once been one of the largest aircraft manufacturers of its time, the company hasn’t existed for almost 60 years, with very few people outside the avgeek community even remembering their name…

Before The de Havilland Aircraft Company

In 1907, Geoffrey de Havilland borrowed £1,000 (£125,000 adjusted for inflation) from his maternal grandfather as an advance on his inheritance. Using this money, and the next two years of his life, Geoffrey built what’s now called DH Biplane No.1.

Geoffrey flew the No.1 for the first (and only) time in December 1909. Despite ending in disaster – with the aircraft crashing due to a faulty left wing, after only a brief flight – this was the beginning of a love affair between Geoffrey and aviation.

According to Geoffrey himself, years later, it was here where he decided that aviation was going to be both his passion and his career. To that end, Geoffrey joined the HM Balloon Factory (the precursor to the Royal Aircraft Factory) at Farnborough in December 1910.

Eventually, Geoffrey left there to join Airco as their chief engineer. At Airco, Geoffrey would design many of the company’s most famous aircraft, including many that were vital to the war effort during WWII.

It would also be at Airco where Geoffrey began labelling his designs with the initials of his surname (DH) and the number of the design, eg. his fifth design would be designated as the (Airco) DH.5.

However, as with many early aircraft manufacturers after WWI, the postwar market was brutal. Whilst Airco had flourished during the war, the Armistice in 1918 essentially saw the end of all their major contracts.

Having built a number of bombers during the war, Geoffrey was tasked with converted undelivered bombers into passenger aircraft, which allowed Airco to do better than most. Yet, Airco was still hemorrhaging money.

Foundation And Early Years

Despite hemorrhaging money, Airco was one of the few British aircraft manufacturers that didn’t seem to be losing its shirt. As such, it began to attract the attention of Britain’s largest munitions company – the Birmingham Small Arms Company, or BSA for short.

In January 1920, BSA acquired Airco after only minimal due diligence. Although the company appeared fine from an outside perspective, BSA failed to see that internally, the company was on its knees.

Unable to save it, Airco ceased operations in July 1920.

With Airco now out of business, Geoffrey de Havilland (alongside the rest of the Airco employees) were now out of a job. Smelling an opportunity, Geoffrey reached out to George Thomas Holt – his former boss and owner of Airco.

Convincing him to start again (as neither had signed a non-compete, as they were unheard of in the 1920’s), Holt put up £10,000 (£460,000 in today’s money), for the venture. Geoffrey, on the other hand, put up a further £3,000 (£138,000 adjusted for inflation) of his own money too.

This new venture, officially called the de Havilland Aircraft Company, relied heavily on the remnants of Airco.

For example, the company’s first employees were Geoffrey’s former colleagues at Airco. The company’s first customers, were former Airco customers, with the company relying heavily on securing contracts previously awarded to Airco.

Having gained many of the former Airco contracts, Geoffrey set his sights on producing commercial biplanes, often repurposing WWI-era bomber designs for passenger and airmail routes.

In 1921, with the company being less than a year old, British aviation entrepreneur, Alan Butler, approached the company about building him an aircraft customized to his specific needs. Although risky, Geoffrey gave the greenlight.

Expansion

What resulted was the first DH.37. Impressed at the quality of the aircraft itself, Butler invested heavily in the business.

For Butler, this allowed him to diversify his holdings. For Geoffrey, this gave him the financial resources he needed to continue developing newer, faster and larger commercial airliners for Britain’s burgeoning airline industry.

Beyond that, Butler’s substantial investment in the company allowed Geoffrey to begin developing the company’s first trainer aircraft: the DH60 Moth.

While the name of this particular aircraft may not seem familiar, the DH60 would serve as the basis for much of the company’s Moth line of trainers, including the incredibly popular de Havilland Tiger Moth, which served with distinction during WWII.

In turn, the success of the company’s early Moth line, as well as its various airliners, the company made a profit of £2,387 (£38,250 adjusted for inflation) in 1922, allowing the company to purchase the Stag Lane Aerodrome for £20,000 (£320,000 adjusted for inflation).

Interestingly, even as the company’s founder and chief engineer, Geoffrey de Havilland insisted on being the first to fly many of his designs, not wanting to risk his employees’ lives if he made a mistake.

After the first flight, Geoffrey’s younger brother, Hereward, would then take over due to his role as the company’s head test pilot.

Whilst the 1920’s had been great for de Havilland, the 1930’s proved to be even better!

Not only did they continue to produce new members of the Moth line, the company also began developing, including its DH.84 Dragon (1933), D.H.86 Express (1934) and DH.89 Dragon Rapide (1934) designs, which all proved to be quite popular.

Beyond its commercial airliners, 1934 also saw the introduction of the company’s famed DH.88 Comet racer, which became famous after the winner of the MacPherson Air Race won flying a DH.88!

de Havilland Engine Company

Photo courtesy of Alan Wilson via Flickr.

The early DH aircraft had been built using engines sourced from other companies, namely Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. As designs progressed, Geoffrey began to notice how constricted he was when designing new aircraft.

Despite there being hundreds of engines on the market, there simply wasn’t an engine on the market that suited the specifications of his latest design, and engine manufacturers were unwilling to design a new engine just for him.

Annoyed at this, Geoffrey chose to do it himself.

Establishing an engine manufacturing division of his company in 1926, Geoffrey hired several engine specialists, and helped them design the company’s first engine, the Ghost (V8) – which had been developed from the ADC Cirrus engine.

Used on the Hawk Moth, the Ghost (V8) served with distinction, with both the Hawk Moth and Ghost (V8) engine becoming famous when English aviation pioneer Amy Johnson used one to fly between Brisbane and Sydney in 1930!

Also designing the Gipsy engine around the same time, the Ghost’s success would be nothing compared to the success of the Gipsy, which in turn, spawned the Gipsy line of engines that would be produced from 1927 to 1940, and be used on almost every pre-WWII de Havilland aircraft.

Following the invention of jet engines, the company became one of the first to produce working designs in the UK, such as the Ghost, Goblin and Gyron lines, as well as a number of rocket designs too, such as the Sprite, Super Sprite and Spectre lines.

Originally just one of many divisions of the company, the engine division soon grew so large that it was formally incorporated as a subsidiary of the company in 1944.

de Havilland Propellers

In the early 1930’s, variable-pitch propellers became all the rage, being used on aircraft big and small. Although there were others, by far the largest producer of variable-pitch propellers were Hamilton Standard, then based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Just as with most other major British aircraft manufacturer of its time, de Havilland was spending a fortune importing propellers from the US. Unlike its competitors, however, the company weren’t content with paying such high shipping costs.

Wanting to do something about it, the company entered talks with Hamilton Standard to begin producing their propellers under license in the UK in 1934.

Coming to an agreement the following year, de Havilland Propellers officially became a division of the company, before later growing to become so large that it was formally incorporated as a full-blown subsidiary on 27 April 1946.

Initially solely producing propellers (then often known as airscrews in the British aviation world) for de Havilland aircraft, as well as for the aircraft produced by the company’s competition such as Gloster Aircraft, Hawker and Avro, the company soon diversified…

Soon producing vibration-measuring equipment found on all DH aircraft, the company soon expanded into producing missiles.

To begin with, these were laser-guided air-to-air missiles such as the Firestreak, but eventually expanded to ICBMs such as the Blue Streak. Other products included fiber-reinforced plastics for the spinners, blade root fairings, and even radars!

Beyond this, the propeller division/subsidiary later produced cold air units and heat exchangers also under license from Hamilton Standard.

WWII

When WWII broke out in September 1939, de Havilland was uniquely positioned as one of Britain’s largest aircraft manufacturers to experience a boom during the war.

To begin with, the company built a number of military transport and cargo aircraft, derived from its line of airliners.

As time progressed, the need for more and more pilots to combat the Luftwaffe became apparent, with thousands of young men joining up as pilots.

Needing aircraft to train them with, the RAF placed orders for thousands more DH.82 Tiger Moths, beyond the ones the RAF had ordered/taken possession of in the prewar years.

Beyond producing the Tiger Moth trainer, the RAF also placed orders for various other members of the Moth trainer line too.

Financed by lucrative wartime contracts, the company was emboldened to produce a twin-engine multirole combat aircraft it called the Mosquito. Made out of wood, the “Wooden Wonder” as it was known first flew on November 25 1940.

Entering service with the RAF on November 15 1941, the Mosquito served with distinction in both RAF service and in other militaries too.

Performing missions in operations like Operation Jericho and Operation Overlord, the Mosquito helped end the war far earlier than had it never entered service.

Entrance Into The Jet Era

Photo courtesy of Johnny Comstedt via Flickr.

Although people had been designing and trying to build working jet engines before the war (with Hans von Ohain even succeeding in 1937), the war gave scientists on both sides ample funding to producing working jet engines and fighters.

Whilst they didn’t produce Britain’s first working jet engine, nor the first working jet fighter (that would be Frank Whittle’s Power Jets W.1 installed on the Gloster Meteor which first flew in March 1943), de Havilland weren’t far behind.

Having begun development of what would become the Goblin engine in March 1941, the company finally had a working prototype by mid-1943.

At the same time, de Havilland had begun development of a jet fighter, which it called the Vampire, a working prototype was ready by 1943 too.

Placing the Goblin engine into the Vampire, the jet first took flight on September 20 1943, before substantial redesigns of the Vampire delayed introduction of the jet until 1946.

Following this, a naval variant of the Vampire, known as the Sea Vampire was produced.

By producing the UK’s second ever fighter jet, de Havilland became famous in the eyes of the British public, and even more so in the eyes of the RAF and especially, the Royal Navy. To that end, the company designed and built the Sea Venom in 1951.

Similarly, the company developed another aircraft, this time for the RAF. Known as the Venom, it entered service in 1952, where it proved to be such a powerful fighter-bomber that it was later developed into the Sea Venom for the Royal Navy!

Enter The Comet

Yet it wasn’t just military fighters that de Havilland were developing. They were also developing what they intended to be the world’s first jet airliner.

With the end of WWII, orders for military aircraft, even jet-powered fighters, were being cancelled or reduced considerably. Although devastating for the aircraft manufacturers themselves, airlines saw an opportunity to get new airlines.

What they wanted was a jet.

Having begun development of a jet-powered troop transport and VVIP aircraft during the war, development of what was to become the de Havilland Comet, otherwise known as the DH.106.

By late 1948, the company had a feasible design and had begun building it. By mid-1949, the company had completed the prototype which first flew on July 27 that same year.

However, the Comet wouldn’t enter service until May 1952 due to several major redesigns of certain areas.

Selling fairly well when it was first released, the company spent much of the early-to-mid 1950’s developing new variants of the jet, including the Comet 2, Comet 3 and Comet 4, some of which sold well, others of which didn’t.

Despite this, the entire Comet family had serious structural defects, which resulted in the entire fleet being grounded in 1954.

Although the problem was later identified and fixed, thus allowing the global Comet fleet to fly again in 1958, the Comet now had steep competition from new airliners like the DC-8, 707 and CV-880 – all of which were superior to and cheaper than the Comet.

Not surprisingly, orders for the Comet soon began to dry up placing the company in a somewhat awkward position financially.

Purchase by Hawker Siddeley, Absorption & Becoming BAe

Having no military aircraft currently in development that it could sell to the RAF or Royal Navy quickly, nor any commercial aircraft it could sell to airlines, and the retirement of their founder Geoffrey in 1955, the company was stuck.

They simply didn’t know how they could save themselves.

Facing a mounting wage bill it was struggling to pay, it looked to many as though de Havilland was about to go bankrupt.

Seeing the opportunity in front of them, Hawker Siddeley, who’d been expanding greatly in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, acquiring Folland Aircraft in 1959 and Blackburn Aircraft in 1960.

Aside from acquiring Folland Aircraft in 1959, Hawker Siddeley also entered talks to buy the struggling company in late 1959, completing the deal only a few months later.

Agreeing to operate it as a separate company (whilst still a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley), de Havilland continued until 1963, when Hawker Siddeley dropped the names of all its subsidiaries and absorbed their operations.

To that end, any aircraft under development at these subsidiaries, such as the company’s DH.121, DH.125 and DH.146 designs, were redesignated as the HS.121, HS.125 and HS.146 respectively.

In 1977, during the premiership of British Prime Minister James Callaghan, all of Britain’s major aircraft manufacturers, including Hawker Siddeley were nationalized and merged into British Aerospace.

To reflect this, the HS.125 and HS.146 received new designations once again, this time receiving the designations of BAe 125 and BAe 146 respectively, which you may be familiar with.

The HS.121, otherwise known as the Hawker Siddeley Trident didn’t receive a new designation as it had entered service in 1964.

British Aerospace was later privatized under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, where it operated until it merged with Marconi Electronic Systems to form BAE Systems.

Foreign Subsidiaries

As one of Britain’s largest aircraft manufacturers, the company had several subsidiaries all of which were in primarily English-speaking countries in the British Empire/Commonwealth.

de Haviland Australia

Photo courtesy of Aero Icarus via Flickr.

In March 1927, Hereward de Havilland moved to Australia with the intention of setting up a subsidiary of his brother’s company there, to help manage all the Australian orders for the company’s famed Moth line.

Officially incorporating de Havilland Aircraft company in Australia that same month, Hereward hired a number of Australians (as well as those employees he brought over with him) to begin building de Havilland aircraft under license.

Starting out by just building the DH60 Moth (the original member of the Moth line) under license, the 1930’s saw the company begin to build newer members of the Moth line such as the Moth Minor and Tiger Moth.

When WWII broke out, Australia was one of the first countries to join the war effort. To begin with, the company just ramped up production of its Moth line of trainers. However, everything changed in 1942.

Beginning in 1942, de Havilland Australia began producing DH.87 Dragons (modified to be VIP transports and/or cargo aircraft) under license for the RAAF.

That same year, the company also began to produce the famed WWII-era Mosquito fighter-bomber, also for the RAAF. Much like their British-made counterparts, the Australian-made Mosquitos proved to be extremely potent against Axis targets throughout the war.

Following the war, the company continued to produce de Havilland airliners and military aircraft. This continued until de Havilland was acquired by Hawker Siddeley, when it was renamed as Hawker de Havilland, becoming Hawker Siddeley’s Australian subsidiary.

de Havilland Canada

Having become the world’s premier line of trainer aircraft, almost every air force in the world wanted to acquire the latest members of the Moth line of trainers. This included the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).

To meet this demand, Geoffrey established de Havilland Aircraft of Canada (sometimes known as DHC) in 1928. Originally located at the De Lesseps Field in Toronto, DHC soon moved to Downsview Airport in 1929.

Producing various members of the Moth line for the RCAF under license during the 1930’s, including the famed Tiger Moth, the 1940’s proved to be a turning point in the company’s history.

Nationalized as a crown corporation by the Canadian government during the war (to ensure aircraft production didn’t falter if de Havilland UK failed), DHC continued to produce Moth trainers, as well as newer aircraft like the Mosquito.

Following the war, DHC continued to produce de Havilland aircraft under license, as well as design their own aircraft, such as the DHC-1, DHC-2 and DHC-3, which were designed to uniquely suit the harsh Canadian climate.

Continuing to do this until the 1980’s, DHC was privatized by the Mulroney government alongside other then-state-owned companies such as Canadair. Sold to Boeing in 1986, DHC was later put up for sale and sold to Bombardier in 1990.

de Havilland New Zealand

During the 1930’s, the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) began placing orders for the Tiger Moth.

Unable to build them in the UK and fly them to New Zealand due to the distance involved (even using stopovers), and the Tiger Moth’s short range preventing them from being flown to the company’s Australian subsidiary and on to New Zealand, the company had to come up with another solution.

Informed that the RAF was looking to set up a flight school in New Zealand, the company now had two air forces in the same country looking for aircraft.

Seeing no alternative, Geoffrey officially incorporated the de Havilland (New Zealand) Company Limited in March 1939.

Building their factory in the Rongotai suburb of New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, the New Zealand subsidiary built a total of 335 Tiger Moths, which were in service between 1939 and 1956.

Mostly produced during the war, the RNZAF’s other DH aircraft, such as the Mosquito were built in the UK, then flown to Australia, and then on to New Zealand where they served in the Pacific and European Theaters.

After the war’s end in 1945, the New Zealand subsidiary performed maintenance and refurbishment on the military and civil DH aircraft in the country. This continued until it was merged into Hawker Siddeley International NZ Ltd in 1964 following the Hawker Siddeley merger.

Legacy

Despite the fact that de Havilland hasn’t operated since the 1960’s, its legacy can still be felt today – in more ways than you’d ever realize too!

United Kingdom

Photo courtesy of Alan Wilson via Flickr.

Just prior to the company’s acquisition by Hawker Siddeley, de Havilland donated its Hatfield site to the Hertfordshire County Council, with the stipulation that it be developed into something educational.

Fulfilling this wish, the Hertfordshire County Council developed the site into the Hatfield Technical College, which opened in the 1960’s.

The college’s primary goal was to teach the next generation of aircraft engineers the basic principles of aircraft design and maintenance.

Today, the Hatfield Technical College no longer exists. Instead, it has been absorbed into the University of Hertfordshire, with the old Hatfield Technical College now being called the de Havilland campus.

Beyond that, those people in Britain with the “de Havilland” surname, even if they’re only distantly related to Geoffrey and Hereward, have their names forever tied to the defunct aviation giant that bears their name, both in the minds of the press and the avgeek community alike!

Aviation Industry

Perhaps the largest impact de Havilland left on the aviation industry was the DH.106 Comet.

Whilst jet airliners would still have been introduced without the Comet, it would’ve likely been much later than in our timeline. You see, the Comet was the wakeup call the aviation industry needed.

Today, it’s painted like every major aircraft manufacturer was pumping billions into their commercial aircraft divisions in the hopes of creating the world’s first jet airliner.

In reality, most were doing this, but were pumping significantly more into their military aircraft divisions by comparison.

The introduction of the Comet showed aircraft manufacturers like Douglas, Boeing and Convair, that if they didn’t act soon and invest heavily in producing a commercial jet airliner, they’d lose their market share to those who did!

Do you remember de Havilland? What do you think of their aircraft? Tell me in the comments!

Featured image courtesy of Clemens Vasters via Flickr.

5 Comments

  • Robert Levins

    The deHavilland was a great plane for its time. Beautiful, state of the art. One reason for it falling out of favor was the fuel consumption. Boeing and the rest started the “New Wave “ of aircraft that was cheaper to build, carried more people, and burned less fuel. Although they were pretty thirsty as well. The de Havilland is in the history book to for producing a marvelous, classy flying experience.

  • Stephen Skinner

    Interesting article, it’s a shame that Hawker Siddeley took them over. I mean, it was necessary but they should have at least tried to keep the de Havilland name alive after 1963 in some way, even if it was only a legacy/heritage thing!

  • Dan

    Interesting how of the many successful
    de Havilland designs the only one the general public remembers is the Comet and only because of the structural failures. Prior to that they were exceptional and innovative.

    • John

      Interesting article, I think it’s maybe missing a nod to the brilliant Chipmunk and the lethal Sea Vixen.

      • Christopher Harrow

        I’d agree, the Chipmunk and the Sea Vixen were great aircraft. We’ve currently got articles about the Chipmunk and Sea Vixen in the works, so stay tuned!

Comments are closed.