Background
Founded in 1920 by veteran aircraft designer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft originally made its fortune making one and two-seat biplane trainers under their now-famous Moth line.
By the mid-1930’s, however, de Havilland had expanded away from just producing biplane trainers, releasing a slew of single and two-engine biplane airliners like DH.83 Fox Moth and DH.84 Dragon.
The company’s most successful airliner – the DH.89 Dragon Rapide – wasn’t released until the summer of 1934. As versatile as it was popular, the Dragon Rapide was as popular with foreign airlines as it was British ones.
With the outbreak of WWII, Britain pressed its civil aircraft into military service for the war effort, including the Dragon Rapide where it was known as the Dominie and used as a radio and navigation trainer and transport aircraft.
By the time production ended in 1946, 727 Dragon Rapides had been produced – an all-time company record for a commercial aircraft.
But the war utterly revolutionized the aviation industry.
When the war ended, requisitioned airliners returned to service or airlines were compensated for their seized property. But when they returned, British airlines found even the newest of these airliners outdated and began to demand new airliners that utilized new technologies developed during the war.
Development
Luckily, the British government had foreseen the need for more modern airliners in the postwar world back in 1942, which had led to the creation of the Brabazon Committee, whose stated goal was to investigate the future needs of the British Empire’s airliner market following the end of the war.
Having made their findings public, aircraft manufacturers like de Havilland were already aware of these requirements and once
Operational History
Airline
Military
Museum
Movie Prop
Variants
- Dove 1
- Dove 1B
- Dove 2
- Dove2B
- Dove 3
- Dove 4
- Devon C Mk 1
- Devon C Mk 2
- Sea Devon C Mk 20
- Dove 5
- Dove 6
- Dove 6B
- Dove 7
- Dove 8
- Dove 8A
- Dove Custom 800
- Carstedt Jet Liner 600
- Riley Dove 400:
Specifications
| Specifications | de Havilland Dove 7 |
|---|---|
| Length | 39 ft 3 in (11.96 m) |
| Wingspan | 57 ft (17.37 m) |
| Height | 13 ft 4 in (4.06 m) |
| Crew | 2 |
| Passengers | 8 |
| Cruise Speed | 301 km/h (187 mph; 162 kn) |
| Range | 1,420 km (880 mi; 760 nmi) |
| Service Ceiling | 21,700 ft (6,600 m) |
| MTOW | 8,500 lb (3,856 kg) |