Preserved de Havilland Dragon Rapide twin-engined passenger biplane aircraft of the 1930s-1960s flying at the 2015 Flying
The de Havilland Dragon Rapide was a 1930s British short-haul biplane passenger airliner In late 1933, the Dragon Rapide was designed at the de Havilland company as a faster & more comfortable successor to the Dragon. It was in effect a twin-engined, scaled-down version of the four-engined Express. It shared many common features with the Express, including its tapered wings, streamlined fairings and the Gipsy Six engine, but it demonstrated none of the operational vices of the Express, & went on to become perhaps the most successful British-built short-haul commercial passenger aircraft of the 1930s. In the summer of 1934, the type entered service with UK-based airlines, with Hillman Airways Ltd being first to take delivery in July. From August 1934, Railway Air Services (RAS) operated a fleet of Dragon Rapides on routes linking London, the north of England and on to Northern Ireland and Scotland. The RAS were named after places on the network, for example "Star of Lancashire" At the start of World War II, many (Dragon) Rapides were impressed by the British armed forces and served under the name de Havilland Dominie. They were used for passenger and communications duties. Over 500 further examples were built specifically for military purposes, powered by improved Gipsy Queen engines, to bring total production to 731. The Dominies were mainly used by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy for radio and navigation training. Postwar they were used as communications aircraft by Royal Naval air station flights. Other civilian Dragon Rapides continued to fly for UK airlines as part of the Associated Airways Joint Committee (AAJC). The AAJC co-ordinated the UKs wartime scheduled services which were entirely operated on over-water routes. After the war, many ex-RAF survivors entered commercial service; in 1958, 81 examples were still flying on the British register.
Size: 3936px × 3148px
Location: Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambrisgeshire, UK
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aircraft, biplane, , dominie, dragon, flying, passenger, rapide, twin-engine
