De Havilland Okapi

DH.14 Okapi

Manufacturer: Airco / de Havilland
First flight: 1919
Primaryusers: Royal Air Force Sidney Cotton
Number built: 3

The de Havilland DH.14 Okapi was a British two-seat day bomber of the 1910s built by de Havilland. The aircraft was designed as an Airco DH.4 and DH.9 replacement, but it never entered production.

History

The Okapi was a scaled up version of the Airco DH.9 with a bigger engine (the Rolls Royce Condor) designed as a replacement for the DH.4 and DH.9. Three aircraft were built but due to the end of the First World War the Royal Air Force was not in a hurry to accept them. The third aircraft was the first to fly, and it was completed by Airco at Hendon as the DH.14A, a two-seat long-range mail plane. The aircraft, registered G-EAPY, was bought by F.S. Cotton who intended to try for the Australian government's £10,000 prize for a flight between England and Australia. His plans were overtaken by events when Keith and Ross Smith won the prize before Cotton was ready. The aircraft did attempt the first flight between London and Cape Town in February 1920, but it only got as far as Italy, where it force-landed near Messina. Although repaired the aircraft was written off in another forced landing on 24 July 1920. The two military aircraft were completed by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome in 1921 and used for trials; no production aircraft were ordered.

Variants

DH.14 - two-seat day bomber with a Rolls Royce Condor engine, two built.
DH.14A - two-seat long range mailplane with a Napier Lion Engine, one built.

Operators

United Kingdom

Royal Air Force

Specifications (DH.14)

Data from The British Bomber since 1914

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 33 ft 11½ in (10.35 m)
Wingspan: 50 ft 5 in (15.37)
Height: 14 ft 0 in (4.27 m)
Wing area: 617 ft² (57.32 m²)
Empty weight: 4,484 lb (2,034 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 7,074 lb (3,209 kg)
Powerplant: 1x— Rolls Royce Condor inline piston, 600 hp (447 kW)

Performance

Maximum speed: 122 mph (196 km/h) at 10,000 ft
Rate of climb: 400 ft/min () at 10,000 ft
Endurance: Five hours

Armament

Guns:
1 x— fixed forward-firing synchronised 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun
1 x— 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun on Scarff ring
Bombs: 6 x— 112 lb (51 kg) bombs in two fuselage bomb bays

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
Jackson, A.J. (1974). British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 2. London: Putnam. ISBN0 370 10010 7.

Living Warbirds: The best warbirds DVD series.

Source: WikiPedia