De Havilland Dolphin Explained

The de Havilland DH.92 Dolphin was a 1930s British prototype light biplane airliner designed and built by the de Havilland aircraft company.[1] [2]

Design and development

The Dolphin was designed as a modernised version of the de Havilland Dragon Rapide, incorporating ideas from the company's DH 86A and de Havilland Dragonfly 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.[3] It was powered by two 204 hp (152 kW) de Havilland Gipsy Six piston engines. Fuel tanks were in the wings, as in the Dragonfly, to avoid the fire hazard[4] of the Rapide's engine nacelle tanks.

One prototype was built and first flown on 9 September 1936. Geoffrey de Havilland's log shows that[5] 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.[6]

In an edition of Flight magazine dated 10 September 1936, the decision to discontinue the type was published as follows:

References

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Jackson 1978, p.385-7
  2. Jackson 1973, p 382
  3. Hayes 2003 p.152
  4. Hayes 2003 p.178
  5. Jackson 1978, p.386
  6. Jackson 1978, p.387