The Airco DH.16 was an early British

airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest ...

Geoffrey de Havilland Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, (27 July 1882 – 21 May 1965) was an English aviation pioneer and aerospace engineer. De Havilland, The aircraft company he founded produced the de Havilland Mosquit ...

, the chief designer at

Airco The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918. Airc ...

. It accommodated a pilot plus four passengers, and was operated from 1919 to 1923.

Design and development

The DH.16 was a redesigned

Airco DH.9A The Airco DH.9A is a British single-engined light bomber that was designed and first used shortly before the end of the First World War. It was a development of the unsuccessful Airco DH.9 bomber, featuring a strengthened structure and, cruciall ...

light bomber biplane with a wider

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

, accommodating an enclosed cabin seating four passengers, plus the pilot in an open cockpit. In March 1919, the prototype first flew at Hendon Aerodrome. Nine aircraft were built, all but one being delivered to Airco's subsidiary Aircraft Transport & Travel Limited (AT&T).

Operational history

AT&T used the first aircraft for pleasure flying, then on 25 August 1919 it was with this type of aircraft that AT&T operated the first regular (daily) international service in the world, from London-

Hounslow Heath Aerodrome Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was a grass airfield, operational 1914–1920. It was in the London borough of Hounslow, and hosted the British Empire's first scheduled daily international commercial flights, in 1919. The site today includes the main ...

Paris–Le Bourget Airport Paris–Le Bourget Airport () is an airport located within portions of the communes of Le Bourget, Bonneuil-en-France, Dugny and Gonesse, north-northeast of Paris, France. Once Paris's principal airport, it is now used only for general a ...

.Jackson 1973, p.62. On 17 May 1920, an AT&T DH.16 (G-EALU) flew the first

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

service between

Croydon Airport Croydon Airport was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. It opened in 1920, located near Croydon, then part of Surrey. Built in a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style, it was developed as Britain's main airp ...

and

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipal ...

. In December 1920, AT&T closed down. One aircraft was sold to the River Plate Aviation Company in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, to operate a cross-river service between

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, and the other aircraft were stored. Two were later used for newspaper delivery flights, but on 10 January 1923 one of these suffered a fatal crash, and the remaining DH.16s were withdrawn and scrapped.Jackson 1987, p.156.

Variants

The first six aircraft were powered by a 320 hp (239 kW)

Rolls-Royce Eagle The Rolls-Royce Eagle was the first aircraft engine to be developed by Rolls-Royce Limited. Introduced in 1915 to meet British military requirements during World War I, it was used to power the Handley Page Type O bombers and a number of oth ...

inline

piston engine A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more Reciprocating motion, reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a Circular motion, rotating motion. This article ...

; the last three aircraft were fitted with the more powerful 450 hp (336 kW)

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 engine, W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept ...

engine.

Operators

; * The River Plate Aviation Co. Ltd. – three aircraft c/n No 2, No 3 and P-4. ; *

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

– services operated by

Aircraft Transport and Travel Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, also known as AT&T was a British airline formed during the First World War, a subsidiary of Airco. It was the first airline to operate a regular international flight (between London and Paris). It is the ...

aircraft. ; *

Limited – all nine DH.16s operated from 1919 to 1922. *De Havilland Aeroplane Hire Service – two former AT&T aircraft from 1922 to 1923.

Specifications (DH.16 with Napier Lion engine)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Conquest of the Air
(1936 documentary) includes a brief sequence of G-EACT (G-K-130) of Aircraft Transport & Travel Ltd. {{DEFAULTSORT:Airco DH.016 DH.016 1910s British airliners 1910s British civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1919 Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear Single-engined piston aircraft