De Havilland Okapi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DH.14 Okapi | |
|---|---|
| Type | Day bomber |
| Manufacturer | Airco / De Havilland |
| Maiden flight | 1919 |
| Primary users | Royal Air Force Sidney Cotton |
| Number built | 3 |
The de Havilland DH.14 Okapi was a British two-seat day bomber of the 1910s built by De Havilland. The aircraft was designed as an Airco DH.4 and DH.9 replacement, it never entered production.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Okapi was a scaled up version of the Airco DH.9 with a bigger engine (the Rolls Royce Condor) designed as a replacement for the DH.4 and DH.9. Three aircraft were built but due to the end of the First World War the Royal Air Force was not in a hurry to accept them. The third aircraft was the first to fly, and it was completed by the Airco at Hendon as the DH.14A a two-seat long-range mailplane. The aircraft, registered G-EAPY,was bought by F.S. Cotton who intended to try for the Australian government £10,000 prize for a flight between England and Australia. It was overcome by events when the Ross brothers won the prize before Cotton was ready. The aircraft did attempt the first flight between London and Capetown in February 1920, but it only made is as far as Italy when it forced landed near Messina. Although repaired the aircraft was written off in another forced landing on 24 July 1920. The two military aircraft were completed by De Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome in 1921 and used for trials, no production aircraft were ordered.
[edit] Variants
- DH.14 - two-seat day bomber with a Rolls Royce Condor engine, two built.
- DH.14A - two-seat long range mailplane with a Napier Lion Engine, one built.
[edit] Operators
[edit] Specifications (DH.14)
Data from The British Bomber since 1914[1]
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 33 ft 11½in (10.35m)
- Wingspan: 50 ft 5 in (15.37)
- Height: 14 ft 0 in (4.27 m)
- Wing area: 617 ft² (57.32 m²)
- Empty weight: 4,484 lb (2034 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 7,074 lb (3209 kg)
- Powerplant: 1× Rolls Royce Condor inline piston, 600 hp (447 kW)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 122 mph (196 km/h)
- Endurance: Five hours
Armament
- one fixed forward-firing synchronised 0.303in (7.7mm) Vickers machine gun
- one 0.303in (7.7mm) Lewis gun on Scarff ring
- six 112 lb (51 kg) bombs in two fuselage bomb bays
[edit] See also
Related lists List of de Havilland aircraft
[edit] References
- ^ Mason, Francis K (1994). The British Bomber since 1914. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books. ISBN 0 85177 861 5.
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
- Jackson, A.J. (1974). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 2. London: Putnam. ISBN 0 370 10010 7.
[edit] External links
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
