Mini-liners The de Havilland Dove and Heron

摘要

During World War II a British study group called the Brabazon Committee (after its leader, Lord Brabazon of Tara) was tasked with determining the future of commercial aircraft development in the UK. Since 1939, the British aircraft industry had, by necessity, concentrated almost entirely on military training and combat aircraft. As a result there were practically no transport aircraft on the production lines and British industry was poorly prepared to compete with modern types that would be streaming from Douglas and Lockheed, and other US plants, following the end of the war. Based on its studies, the committee issued a number of specifications for a variety of new aircraft. One of its conclusions was the urgent need for a 'light traffic' type to replace the 1934-vintage de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapide, usually simply known as the Rapide, or the Dominie in military circles. A development of the four-engine D.H.86 'Express', the twin-engine Rapide replaced the D.H.84 Dragon and had formed the backbone of Britain's domestic air transport system before and during the war. As the Rapide was mostly of wood and fabric construction it was considerably outdated.