The Airco DH.16 was a British four-seat commercial biplane of the 1910s designed by

Geoffrey de Havilland Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, (27 July 1882 – 21 May 1965) was an English aviation pioneer and aerospace engineer. The aircraft company he founded produced the Mosquito, which has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built, ...

, the chief designer at

Airco The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918. Ai ...

Design and development

The DH.16 was a redesigned

Airco DH.9A The Airco DH.9A was a British single-engined light bomber designed and first used shortly before the end of the First World War. It was a development of the unsuccessful Airco DH.9 bomber, featuring a strengthened structure and, crucially, repla ...

with a wider

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

, accommodating an enclosed cabin seating four passengers, plus the pilot in an open cockpit. In March 1919, the prototype first flew at

Hendon Aerodrome Hendon Aerodrome was an aerodrome in London, England, that was an important centre for aviation from 1908 to 1968. It was situated in Colindale, north west of Charing Cross. It nearly became a central hub of civil aviation ("the Charing Cros ...

. Nine aircraft were built, all but one being delivered to Aircraft Transport & Travel Limited (AT&T). AT&T used the first aircraft for pleasure flying, then on 25 August 1919 it inaugurated a London-to-Paris service.Jackson 1973, p.62. One aircraft was sold to the River Plate Aviation Company in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, to operate a cross-river service between

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and Montevideo. AT&T operated the London (

Hounslow Heath Aerodrome Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was a grass airfield, operational 1914–1920. It was in the London borough of Hounslow, and hosted the British Empire's first scheduled daily international commercial flights, in 1919. The site today includes the main r ...

)-to-Paris service, plus a Croydon Airport-to-

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

service on behalf of

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

. On 17 May 1920, an AT&T DH.16 (G-EALU) flew the first KLM service between London and Amsterdam. In December 1920, AT&T closed down, and the surviving seven aircraft were stored. Two were later used for newspaper delivery flights, and the other five were scrapped. On 10 January 1923, one of the two newspaper delivery aircraft suffered a fatal crash, and DH.16s were withdrawn and scrapped.Jackson 1987, p.156.

Variants

The first six aircraft were powered by a 320 hp (239 kW) Rolls Royce Eagle inline piston engine; the last three aircraft were fitted with the more powerful 450 hp (336 kW)

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in prod ...

engine.

Operators

; * River Plate Aviation Company – one former AT&T aircraft from 1920. ; *

– services operated by Aircraft Transport and Travel aircraft. ; * Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited – all nine DH.16s operated from 1919 to 1922. *De Havilland Aeroplane Hire Service – two former AT&T aircraft from 1922 to 1923.

Specifications (DH.16 with Napier Lion engine)

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Conquest of the Air
(1936 documentary) includes a brief sequence of G-EACT (G-K-130) of Aircraft Transport & Travel Ltd. {{DEFAULTSORT:Airco DH.016 DH.016 1910s British airliners 1910s British civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1919