The de Havilland DH.92 Dolphin was a 1930s

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, ...

prototype light biplane airliner designed and built by the

de Havilland aircraft company 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 ...

.Jackson 1978, p.385-7Jackson 1973, p 382

Design and development

The Dolphin was designed as a modernised version of the

de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its rela ...

, incorporating ideas from the company's DH 86A and

de Havilland Dragonfly The de Havilland DH.90 Dragonfly is a 1930s British twin-engined luxury touring biplane built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Hatfield Aerodrome. Development The Dragonfly shares a clear family resemblance with the Dragon Rapide, but ...

but using new main assembly designs. It had a DH 86A-style nose to accommodate two crew side by side and increased span wings of unequal span, Dragonfly-like. It first appeared with the trousered undercarriage of these earlier biplane transports, but a retractable landing gear, rather like that of the DH.88 Comet was fitted before flight. Onboard air-stairs were one of the passenger access novelties.Hayes 2003 p.152 It was powered by two 204 hp (152 kW)

de Havilland Gipsy Six The de Havilland Gipsy Six is a British six-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline piston engine developed by the de Havilland Engine Company for aircraft use in the 1930s. It was based on the cylinders of the four-cylinder Gipsy Major and ...

piston engines. Fuel tanks were in the wings, as in the Dragonfly, to avoid the fire hazard of the Rapide's engine nacelle tanks. One prototype was built and first flown on 9 September 1936.

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 ...

's log shows thatJackson 1978, p.386 he flew it only once more. No others were built as it proved to be too heavy structurally and the prototype was scrapped in December 1936.Jackson 1978, p.387 In an edition of Flight magazine dated 10 September 1936, the decision to discontinue the type was published as follows:

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

{{de Havilland aircraft 1930s British civil utility aircraft

Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...