Warplanes of the USA: Ohio, Dayton, National Museum of the USAF: de Havilland aircraft

Warplane Survivors USA: Ohio, Dayton, National Museum of the USAF: de Havilland

de Havilland DH-4B,at the Dayton-Wright South Airfield, ca 1918.  (NMUSAF Photo)

de Havilland DH-4B at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, ca 1918.  (NMUSAF Photo)

(NMUSAF Photos)

de Havilland DH-4B (Serial No. N-489).  This reproduction DH-4B is marked as a photographic aircraft used by the 12th Aero Squadron in the early 1920's to take pictures of the US/Mexico border and potential emergency landing fields.

de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth (Serial No. N-390H).  This aircraft was donated to the museum by Susan and Kurt Hofschneider of Colonia, New Jersey, and J.P. Jordan of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.

(NMUSAF Photos)

de Havilland DH.89A Dominie (Serial No. NR695), C/N 6794.  Previously painted as (Serial No. X7454), modified to civil Dragon Rapide standards.  USAAF DH.89s carried RAF serial numbers.  The Dominie was built in the United Kingdom as a military version of the DH 89 Dragon Rapide, an eight-passenger civilian light transport.  The DH 89 was first flown in 1934, and by the time production ended about 10 years later, 728 of the small biplane transports had been built.  More than 530 Dominies were produced for the Royal Air Force and used in communications, transport and training roles.  Six were turned over to the USAAF's Eighth Air Force between 1942 and 1944.  They were used primarily by the 27th Transport Group.  As far as is known, all Dominies flown by Americans carried RAF serial numbers and no USAAF serial numbers were assigned.  The Dominie on display in the NMUSAF was built in 1944 and carried RAF (Serial No. NR695).  It was sold to the government of India in 1945, then sold again to a private concern in 1946.  Eventually, it came to the United States where it was modified to the civilian Dragon Rapide passenger configuration seen here.  It was obtained by the museum and flown there in November 1989.  The aircraft has been modified and painted to represent one of the six Dominies flown by the USAAF during the Second World War.

(NACA Photo)

de Havilland Canada Mosquito B Mk. XX, flown with the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley Research Center, Virginia, during longitudinal stability and control studies of the aircraft in 1945. This aircraft was  the Canadian version of the Mosquito B Mk. IV bomber aircraft. 145 were built, of which 40 were converted into photo-reconnaissance aircraft for the USAAF, which designated the planes F-8.

(USAAF Photo)

de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito PR Mk. XVI (Serial No. NM345), USAAC, 654th Bomb Squadron, 25th Bombardment Group, at RAF Watton, UK, 1944.

(NMUSAF Photos)

de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito B35 (Serial No. N9797),ex-G-MOSI, ex-G-ASKA, painted as USAAF F-8 (Serial No. NS519).   Mosquitoes were flown by several U.S. Army Air Force units as photographic and weather reconnaissance aircraft and as night fighters.  During the Second World War, the USAAF acquired 40 Canadian Mossies and flew them under the American F-8 (photo reconnaissance) designation.  In addition, the British turned over more than 100 Mosquitoes to the USAAF under Reverse Lend-Lease.  These aircraft retained their British designations.  The aircraft on display in the NMUSAF is a British-built B. Mk. 35 manufactured in 1946 (later converted for towing targets) and is similar to the P.R. Mk. XVIs used by the USAAF.  It was flown to the museum in February 1985.  This Mosquito, serial RS709, has been restored to a Mk. XVI configuration and painted as NS519, a weather reconnaissance aircraft of the 653rd Bombardment Squadron based in England in 1944-1945.  Just before the D-Day, 6 June 1944, invasion of France, black and white stripes were applied almost overnight to a vast majority of American and British aircraft to clearly identify them during the Normandy landings.  In the rush to mark all the aircraft, masking and spraying sometimes gave way to more expeditious method of painting them by hand.  Invasion stripes, like the ones being applied by the ground crewman in the museum's exhibit, would have completely encircled the wings and fuselage.  The 25th Bombardment Group adopted a red tail for their Mosquitoes in August 1944 and removed the invasion stripes from the upper wing and upper fuselage surfaces in September 1944.

(NMUSAF Photo)

de Havilland Canada U-6A Beaver (Serial No. 51-16501), C/N 277.  de Havilland Aircraft of Canada manufactured the U-6A (designated L-20 until 1962), delivering nearly 1,000 to the United States' armed services.  Although flown mostly by the U.S. Army, the USAF employed more than 200 U-6As, primarily for aeromedical evacuation.  However, the USAF also used the U-6A aircraft for courier service, passenger transport, light cargo, reconnaissance, rescue and aerial photography missions.  The U-6A saw USAF service in both the Korean and Southeast Asia Wars.  The museum acquired the U-6A on display in 1980.  It carries markings typical of USAF L-20/U-6 aircraft during the late 1950s and 1960s.

(NMUSAF Photos)

de Havilland Canada C-7A Caribou (Serial No. 62-4193), KA, C/N 138.  The C-7A is a twin-engine, short takeoff and landing (STOL) utility transport built by De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd.  It was used primarily for tactical airlift missions from short, unimproved airstrips in forward battle areas.  It could carry either 26 fully equipped paratroops, 20 litter patients, or more than three tons of equipment.  In 1961 De Havilland delivered the first 22 out of a total of 159 C-7s to the Army.  Originally designated AC-1, the aircraft was redesignated CV-2 in 1962, and it retained that designation for the remainder of its Army service.  In January 1967, when responsibility for all fixed-wing tactical transports was transferred to the U.S. Air Force, the Caribou received the designation C-7. During the Southeast Asia War, the Caribou's STOL capability made it particularly suitable for delivering troops, supplies, and equipment to isolated outposts. The C-7A on display in the NMUSAF is a Southeast Asia combat veteran that later served with the Air Force Reserve.  It is painted to appear as one of the C-7As flown by Maj. Hunter Hackney on 25 Aug 1968.  On this day, he flew several aerial resupply missions at low altitude through intense enemy fire, incurring heavy damage.  For his heroism, Hackney was awarded the Air Force Cross.

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