de Havilland Puss Moth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Puss_Moth

The de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth is a British three-seater high-wing monoplane
aeroplane designed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company between 1929
and 1933. It flew at a speed approaching 124 mph (200 km/h), making it one of
the highest-performance private aircraft of its era.

The unnamed DH.80 prototype which first flew in September 1929 was designed for
the flourishing private flying movement in the United Kingdom. It was a
streamlined all-wooden aircraft fitted with the new de Havilland Gipsy III
inverted inline engine that gave unimpeded vision across the nose without the
protruding cylinder heads of the earlier Gipsy II engine.

After the prototype was tested, the aircraft was redesigned with a
fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and as such redesignated the DH.80A Puss
Moth. The first production aircraft flew in March 1930 and was promptly sent on
a sales tour of Australia and New Zealand. Orders came quickly and in the three
years of production ending in March 1933, 259 were manufactured in England. An
additional 25 aircraft were built by de Havilland Canada. Most were fitted with
the 130 hp (97 kW) Gipsy Major engine that gave slightly better performance.

The Puss Moth was replaced on the production line by the de Havilland DH.85
Leopard Moth that, with a plywood fuselage, was both cheaper to build, and
lighter weight. Being lighter, the Leopard Moth had better performance on the
same rather modest 130 hp (97 kW) Gipsy Major engine.

Early in its career, the DH.80A was plagued by a series of fatal crashes, the
most famous being to Australian aviator Bert Hinkler while crossing the Alps in
CF-APK on 7 January 1933. The cause was eventually pinned down to "flutter"
caused by turbulence leading to wing failure - this was corrected by stiffening
the front strut with a jury strut to the rear wing root fitting. One aircraft
took part in the Challenge 1934 European tourist plane contest, but dropped out
because of an engine fault on one of the last stages.


Role
Light utility aircraft

Manufacturer
de Havilland

First flight
9 September 1929

Introduction
March 1930

Produced
1929-1933

Number built
284

Most DH.80As were used as private aircraft, though many also flew commercially
with small air charter firms for passenger and mail carrying. Seating was
normally two although in commercial use two passengers could be carried in
slightly staggered seats with the rear passenger's legs beside the forward
passenger seat. The wings folded backwards for storage, pivoting on the rear
spar root fitting and the V-strut root fitting, a system used on other De
Havilland light airplanes of the period.

Surviving British civilian aircraft were impressed into service during the
Second World War to act as communication aircraft. A few survive into the early
21st century.

During the early 1930s, DH.80s were used for a number of record breaking
flights. In early 1931, Nevill Vintcent made the first flight from England to
Ceylon in G-AAXJ. In July–August 1931 Amy Johnson made an eight-day flight with
her co-pilot, Jack Humphreys to Moscow and Tokyo in G-AAZV, named "Jason II",
completing the leg to Moscow in one day. Late in 1931, the Australian Bert
Hinkler piloted a Canadian-built CF-APK on a series of important flights
including New York City-Jamaica, Jamaica to Venezuela, and a 22-hour, west-east
crossing of the South Atlantic, only the second solo transatlantic crossing. In
November 1931, Miss Peggy Salaman, the 19-year-old London girl who set out to
beat in G-ABEH, named "Good Hope", the record for the flight from London to Cape
Town, has succeeded in arriving in Cape Town at 5.40 a.m., with Mr. Gordon
Store, her co-pilot and navigator, having beaten the previous record set up by
the late Commander Glen Kidston, by more than one day.

Most famous of the record breaking Puss Moths was Jim Mollison's G-ABXY, "The
Heart's Content" which completed the first solo east-west Atlantic crossing in
August 1932 from Portmarnock Strand near Dublin to New Brunswick, Canada and the
first east-west crossing of the South Atlantic from Lympne Aerodrome to Natal,
Brazil in February 1933. His wife Amy Johnson made record flights between
England and Cape Town using G-ACAB, "Desert Cloud" in 1932. C.J. Melrose flew
VH-UQO, named "My Hildegarde" in the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race. They finished
overall seventh and second on handicap in a time of 10 days 16 hours.

Specifications (DH.80)

Crew: one
Capacity: one or two passengers
Length: 25 ft 0 in (7.6 m)
Wingspan: 36 ft 9 in (11.2 m)
Height: 7 ft 0 in (2.1 m)
Wing area: 222 ft² (20.6 m²)
Empty weight: 1,265 lb (575 kg)
Loaded weight: 2,050 lb (932 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × de Havilland Gipsy III 4-cylinder, air cooled inline engine, 120
hp (97 kW)

Performance
Maximum speed: 128 mph (196 km/h)
Range: 300 mi (483 km)
Service ceiling: 17,500 ft (3,335 m)
Rate of climb: 630 ft/min (192 m/min)




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