The de Havilland DH.75 Hawk Moth was a 1920s

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

four-seat cabin monoplane built by

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...

Stag Lane Aerodrome Stag Lane Aerodrome was a private aerodrome between 1915 and 1933 in Edgware, north London, UK. History The land for an aerodrome was purchased by the London & Provincial Aviation Company (Warren and Smiles - Michael Geoffrey Smiles of Bonning ...

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

Design and development

The DH.75 Hawk Moth was the first of a family of high-wing monoplane Moths, and was designed as a light transport or air-taxi for export. The aircraft had a fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and wooden wings. The Hawk Moth was first flown on 7 December 1928 from Stag Lane.Jackson 1987, p.284. The first aircraft used a 200 hp (149 kW)

de Havilland Ghost The de Havilland Ghost (originally Halford H-2) was the de Havilland Engine Company's second design of a turbojet engine to enter production and the world's first gas turbine engine to enter airline service (with British Overseas Airways Corpo ...

engine. This engine comprised two

de Havilland Gipsy The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (300 ...

s mounted on a common crankcase to form an air-cooled V-8. With the Ghost, the aircraft was underpowered and a

Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah The Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah is a seven-cylinder British air-cooled aircraft radial engine of 834 cu in (13.65 L) capacity introduced in 1935 and produced until 1948. Early variants of the Cheetah were initially known as the Lynx Major.Lums ...

7-cylinder radial engine was fitted to it and all but one production aircraft. Changes were also made to the structure including increased span and chord wings and the aircraft was redesignated the DH.75A. In December 1929 the first aircraft was demonstrated in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with both wheel and ski undercarriage. Following trials with the second aircraft on floats, the Canadian government ordered three aircraft for civil use. The first Canadian aircraft (actually the first Hawk Moth) did not have doors on the port side and could therefore not be used as a floatplane, so it was used by the Controller of Civil Aircraft. Further tests were carried out by

de Havilland Canada De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited is an aircraft manufacturer with facilities formerly based in the Downsview area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original home of de Havilland Canada was the home of the Canadian Air and Space Museum loca ...

in 1930, and the second and third aircraft were cleared to use floats. With restrictions on payload when fitted with floats the Canadian aircraft were used only on skis or wheels. In an attempt to compete with

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

-designed aircraft, the eighth aircraft was produced as the DH.75B with a 300 hp (224 kW) Wright Whirlwind engine. Production was stopped and two aircraft were not completed.

Operational service

With three aircraft operating in Canada a further two were exported to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. One of the Australian aircraft, VH-UNW ex G-AAFX, was used by

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records duri ...

to fly from Brisbane to Sydney in 1930 when her

De Havilland Moth The de Havilland Moths were a series of light aircraft, sports planes, and military trainers designed by Geoffrey de Havilland. In the late 1920s and 1930s, they were the most common civilian aircraft flying in Britain, and during that time ever ...

''Jason'' was damaged. Major De Havilland later flew Miss Johnson to Perth in the aircraft, from where she returned to Britain by ship. VH-UNW was later sold to

Hart Aircraft Service Hart Aircraft Service Pty. Ltd. was an Australian aviation company registered at Melbourne in mid-1929 with directors James Hart, John Hider and Norman Charles Trescowthick. Director James Hart (c1891-1951) was a former Royal Flying Corp aviat ...

of Melbourne who used it mainly for joy flights. In February 1934 it was sold to Tasmanian Airways as the ''City of Hobart'' to run between

Brighton, Tasmania Brighton is a suburb 27 km north of Hobart, in Tasmania, Australia. It is between Pontville and the outer Hobart suburb of Bridgewater on the Midland Highway. At the 2016 census, Brighton had a population of 4,983. History From 1826 o ...

and

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () or () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, Launceston has a population of 87,645. Material was copied ...

which it continued to do until it made a forced landing at Brighton on 10 January 1935 after a piston-rod failure, and the engine appears to have been found beyond repair. By mid-1936 the engine-less airframe had been sold to G. H. "Harry" Purvis who refitted it with a Wright Whirlwind engine and used it to conduct joy flights in New South Wales. It last flew for

Connellan Airways Connellan Airways (later Connair) was an airline headquartered in Alice Springs, Australia. It operated scheduled flights as well other air transport services throughout the Northern Territory from 1939 to 1980. History The company was fo ...

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

and was withdrawn from service in 1949.''Launceston Examiner'', 11 May 1934, 12 January 1935, 28 November 1936, http://www.australianflying.com.au/news/the-de-havilland-dh-75-hawk-moth-in-australia.

Variants

;DH.75 :Prototype with de Havilland Ghost V8 engine; one built, later re-engined. ;DH.75A :Production version with

Armstrong Siddeley Lynx The Armstrong Siddeley Lynx is a British seven-cylinder aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. Testing began in 1920 and 6,000 had been produced by 1939. In Italy Alfa Romeo built a licensed version of this engine named the Alfa Romeo ...

VIA radial piston engine; six built. ;DH.75B :Final production aircraft fitted with a 300 hp (224 kW)

Wright R-975 Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...

Whirlwind radial engine; one built. DH.75A VH-UNW retrofitted to this standard in 1936.

Operators

; *

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

; *

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

; *

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Specifications (D.H.75A (Landplane))

Notes

References

* * * * *http://www.australianflying.com.au/news/the-de-havilland-dh-75-hawk-moth-in-australia {{Authority control Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft 1920s British civil utility aircraft

Hawk Moth The Sphingidae are a family of moths (Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, but ...

Aircraft first flown in 1928