Dayton-Wright Messenger Explained
The
Dayton-Wright T-4 Messenger was a light, single-seat reconnaissance aircraft built in the
United States by the
Dayton-Wright Company in 1918 in the hope of gaining a production contract from the
United States Army. It was a small conventional single-bay
biplane with a neatly streamlined fuselage and staggered, equal-span wings. The undercarriage was of fixed
tailskid type and the pilot sat in an open cockpit. Although diminutive, the design in fact started life as a scaled-
up version of the
Dayton-Wright Bug and shared a family resemblance to the
de Havilland DH.4 that Dayton-Wright was building under licence during
World War I. When the US Army was not interested in the aircraft, plans were made to sell it on the civil market, but these came to nothing and the prototype was the only example ever built.
References
- Citations
Bibliography
- Book: Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1919 . Sampson Low . London . 455 .
- Book: Taylor, Michael J. H. . Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation . 1989 . Studio Editions . London . 305 .
- Book: Wegg, John. General Dynamics Aircraft and their Predecessors. 1990. London. Putnam. 0-85177-833-X.