De Havilland D.H.95 Flamingo

De Havilland D.H.95 Flamingo was the work of designer Ronald Eric Bishop. Interestingly, while for De Havilland it was its first all-metal aircraft, for the designer it was its first design for this company. The reason for the birth of this type was the effort to build a machine capable of competing with machines of the type Douglas DC-3 and Lockheed Electra, which in at that time they dominated the field of commercial aircraft. However, the promising career of this medium-range transport aircraft was interrupted by the beginning of World War II.


The Flamingo was an elegant twin-engine self-supporting high-flying aircraft, designed to carry twelve to seventeen passengers and three crew members. The crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot and radio operator. The modern elements of its equipment were a three-bladed propeller with adjustable blades, split flaps and a hydraulically retractable landing gear. The first prototype (c/n 95001), which was lifted into the air on December 28, 1938 by the chief pilot of the company Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. together with co-pilot George Gibbins from the airport Hatfield, was powered by two Bristol Perseus XIIC star engines with an output of 890 hp (664 kW). The prototype was experimentally equipped with a third rudder located in the middle of the original double, on serial machines were used double rudders with an increased area. This copy was handed over to Guernsey & Jersey Airways Ltd in May 1939 for a two-month test run on a route from Heston via Southampton to the Channel Islands. Two aircraft were ordered by another airline, but the outbreak of war caused the cancellation of the order and the inclusion of both machines in the Air Force. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) ordered for its needs three machines of this type - two for 24. squadron and one for the Royal Squadron. The last Flamingo from this order was delivered on September 7, 1940 and in February 1941 handed over to the 24th Squadron. This squadron also received a prototype, then the two above-mentioned machines from the canceled civilian order and finally five machines on which De Havilland tested more powerful Bristol Perseus XVI engines with an output of 930 pcs. These engines were later equipped with previously manufactured machines - one aircraft serving in the ranks of the 782nd Naval Squadron ( 782 Naval Air Squadron) and used to maintain air links with Orkney, the Shetland Islands and Northern Ireland as well as eight BOAC aircraft with its parent airport in Cairo, Egypt.


De Havilland D.H.95 Flamingo named Merlin VI (later Merlin 27) with serial number BT312, used during the war in the 782nd Squadron, was the only aircraft of this type, which returned to civilian service after the war. It was registered under the civil brand G-AFYH and flew for the airline British Air Transport Ltd. The aircraft served only briefly in the years 1945-1946 and in 1954 was canceled in Redhill.


For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that one prototype of a purely military machine was also built with the designation De Havilland D.H.95 Hertfordshire (serial number R2510). The only difference compared to the civilian version of the Flamingo were the smaller round windows in the fuselage, which in accordance with Specification 19/39 held 22 paratroopers. The military administration originally ordered 30 pieces of this version, but the order was later canceled. The contract was numbered 97/39 (later B.8999/39) and the only machine of this type was delivered to the RAF in June 1940. biplanes Tiger Moth. The machine number R2510 itself served in the RAF only for a short time and, moreover, with a tragic end. The machine crashed near Mill Hill on October 23, 1940, killing all eleven people on board.

Chorlton, M .: COMPANY PROFILE 1920-1964, De Havilland Military Types, ISBN 978-1-909786-12-7
Jackson, A.J .: De Havilland Aircraft Since 1909, Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN: 0870218964
www.fleetairarmarchive.net
en.wikipedia.org

Flaming is also associated with another plane crash, which in its time filled the pages of not only the English press. On April 30, 1942, the De Havilland Flamingo serial R2764 named "Lady of Castledown" belonging to 24 crashed near Great Ouseburn in Yorkshire. squads. Due to the wartime, the crash of one machine would not have attracted such public attention without the origin of the people killed on board. In addition to the crew and two senior officers of the British Air Force, four senior officers of the Soviet Red Army were transported in the machine. They were part of the Soviet delegation, which was preparing the upcoming secret visit of the People's Commissar (Minister) of Foreign Affairs of the USSR to Great Britain Vyacheslav Molotov and his flight to the USA. Although sabotage was originally mentioned as the cause of the accident, the investigation showed that the accident was caused by a cracked cylinder head in one of the engines, which caused the engine to fire and the wing to break off. An excellent long-distance pilot and a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union Major Sergei Alexandrovich Asyamov ( Сергей Александрович Асямов[/i: aa) Military Mission in Great Britain - Major Boris Filipovich Shvtsov Petrovich Pugachov ( Григорий Петрович Пугачев). The pilot of the machine was one of the most experienced pilots 24. perute P/O Iain Ramsay, who until then had flown more than 3,755 hours with various types of aircraft.

www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk
http://www.theflamingocrash.co.uk/
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=2385
www.iwm.org.uk
http://www.group9may.com/asyamov.html

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www.flightglobal.com

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http://www.airwar.ru/enc/cw1/dh95.html

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