__NOTOC__ De Havilland Biplane No. 1 is a name applied retrospectively to the first aircraft constructed 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,D ...

, who built and flew it once in December 1909. De Havilland undertook the project with the assistance of his friend, and soon to be brother-in-law, Frank Hearle, and financed the project with £1,000 borrowed from his maternal grandfather as an advance on his inheritance. The resulting design was a three-bay

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

with an open-truss

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 aircraft t ...

, equal-span unstaggered

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

s, and a four-wheeled

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

. Power was provided by a 45 hp (30 kW)

de Havilland Iris The de Havilland Iris was a British four-cylinder, liquid-cooled, horizontally opposed aero engine. Notable as the first aero engine to be designed by Geoffrey de Havilland it was produced in small numbers between 1909 and 1910 by Iris C ...

flat-four engine A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, ...

The de Havilland Engine
light magazine 21 May 1910 p.388 (custom-built by the

Iris Car Company Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants *Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional enti ...

for £220) driving two pusher

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s mounted behind the wings. A

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

and stabiliser were carried to the rear, with a large

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

at the front of the aircraft. Lateral control was provided by

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s attached to the upper wing, de Havilland's wife, Louise, sewed the

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...

surfaces of the wings. With construction continuing at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, de Havilland and Hearle looked for a site to test the aircraft. During a visit to

Crux Easton Crux Easton is a hamlet in the Ashmansworth civil parish of Hampshire, England, about south of Newbury, Berkshire. History The Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels was built in 1775, restored in 1894 and is a Grade II* ...

in the summer, they discovered unused sheds that had been built on

Lord Carnarvon Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled ''Caernarfon,'' havi ...

's estate at

Seven Barrows Seven Barrows is a Bronze Age bowl barrow cemetery, of which are designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, at Upper Lambourn in the civil parish of Lambourn in the English county of Berkshire. It is managed by the Berkshire, Bu ...

John Moore-Brabazon Lieutenant-Colonel John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara, , HonFRPS (8 February 1884 – 17 May 1964), was an English aviation pioneer and Conservative politician. He was the first Englishman to pilot a heavier-than- ...

. De Havilland purchased them in August for £150 and secured Lord Carnarvon's permission to fly from his land. By December, de Havilland and Hearle relocated the aircraft to the sheds and took rooms at a nearby inn. After ground tests, they sent the aircraft rolling down Beacon Hill with de Havilland at the controls. It became airborne briefly, covering some 100 ft (35 m) before the left wing failed, and the aircraft crashed. De Havilland's most serious injury was a blow to the wrist from one of the still-spinning propellers, received after extricating himself from the wreckage. The engine was salvaged and powered the team's next aircraft, the de Havilland Biplane No. 2, which first flew in September 1910, also at Beacon Hill.

Specifications

References

;Bibliography * Taylor M.J.H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation'' London: Studio Editions, 1989 p. 308 * Jackson, A. J. ''de Havilland Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1962 * Jackson, A. J. ''de Havilland Aircraft since 1909''. London: Putnam, 1987. . * Munson - Pioneer Aircraft 1969

External links

Details of the De Havilland machine
light magazine 9 April 1910 {{de Havilland aircraft 1900s British experimental aircraft Biplane No. 1 Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1909