82 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017DEVELOPMENT DE HAVILLAND DRAGON
The Dragon was an immediate success as a
passenger airliner because of its remarkably low
operating costJ
ust in excess of 200 de
Havilland DH84
Dragons were built, but
it was briefly an
important, fast-selling type. It
was notable for enabling the
development of a remarkable
network of medium-range
airlines in Great Britain, and
some overseas. Even though
the Dragon was quickly
eclipsed, it nevertheless gave
notable service through and
beyond World War Two.
Edward Hillman had been
using the DH83 Fox Moth very
successfully in his eponymous
airline, and the DH84 was a
response to his request for a
larger passenger aircraft. The
Fox Moth carried three
passengers with the power of
one engine, which Hillman had
found to be economical, and
which enabled, for the first
time in Britain, airline flying
without excessively expensive
tickets or the support of
government subsidies.
Moreover, the de Havilland
company had noticed that the
Fox Moth, even though it
wasn’t a great seller, was
popular as an air taxi. DH saw
something between it and the
larger airliners as a commercial
opportunity. Such a machine
would also, it turned out, meet
a nascent Iraqi Air Force
requirement for a multi-
purpose twin-engined type, as
outlined to de Havilland
during 1932 by Flt Lt H. E.
Forrow, RAF adviser to the
newly-formed air arm.Although it was mostly
known for its well-regarded
light aircraft, de Havilland had
built a number of airliners prior
to the Dragon, commencing
with the Airco DH18, followed
by the DH29 Doncaster, DH34,
DH50, DH54 Highclere, DH61
Giant Moth and DH66
Hercules. While some of them
had been successful, none was
to prove as cost-effective asde Havilland style. Power was
provided by two of the firm’s
proven Gipsy Major engines.
Unlike the layout of DH’s
earlier transports, the pilot was
placed at the very front of the
fuselage, ahead of the
passenger cabin, and the
passengers and the pilot were
fully enclosed. The fuselage
was of the simplest box
structure, though moreThe first Dragon flew on 24
November 1932 at de
Havilland’s Stag Lane
aerodrome, in the hands of
Hubert Broad. The design
process was rapid, as The
Aeroplane reported on 21
December 1932: “A
remarkable fact is that the
design was only talked about
in August of this year and was
actually not started until
September...” It initially bore
the manufacturer’s allocated
code of E.9, and was originally
known and advertised as the
Dragon Moth (the North
American apatelodes
torrefacta), fitting with the
nomenclature adopted
originally by lepidopterist
Geoffrey de Havilland for his
aircraft. But the ‘Moth’ suffix
was quickly abandoned.
The Dragon was an
immediate success because of
its remarkably low operating
costs. For the first time a
full-size airliner offered
exceptional load-lifting
capabilities and minimal
running costs. Flight was
impressed with the economics
of the type: on 22 December
1932, the journal stated: “...
the tare weight of the machine,
equipped to carry six
passengers, is 2,300lb
(1,045kg) and the permissible
gross weight is 4,200lb
(1,910kg), so that the ratio of
gross to tare weight is no less
than 1.825. The machine, in
other words, carries as a
normal disposable load andBack in the airliner business
would the Dragon, nor indeed
its successor, the Dragon
Rapide.
The design process for the
Dragon followed de
Havilland’s regular practice of
evolution. It had a new, boxy
fuselage and biplane inner
wings, coupled with tail
surfaces in the very identifiablestreamlined than it first
appeared. Though it was
designed to be operated by
one pilot, Dragon users often
added a crewman, able to act
as starter for the hand-swung
Gipsys as well as performing
the roles of aircraft engineer,
baggage loader, cleaner, ticket
seller and more.Test pilot Hubert Broad with
the first Dragon. AEROPLANEABOVE: Dragon E.9 under test. de Havilland got the new design
remarkably right from the start. BAE SYSTEMS81-94_AM_DATABASE-Sept17_cc C.indd 82 31/07/2017 11:12