Aviation of World War II

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De Havilland

Sir Geoffrey De Havilland <br> (27 July 1882 - 21 May 1965)

Sir Geoffrey De Havilland
(July 27, 1882 - May 21, 1965)

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Sir Jeffrey De Havilland was born into a family of a clergyman and, after earning his degree in engineering, initially took up the development of automobiles. His interest in aviation arose in 1909. He built his first plane, which he crashed on his first flight, in 1910, and the next year he built another, which he managed to sell for £ 400. In 1911-1913, D. De Havilland worked as a designer at the royal factory, and in January 1914 he moved to the Airco company, where during the First World War all his aircraft were built with the designations D.H.1 to D.H.9. In 1920, Jeffrey De Havilland was able to raise about 20 thousand pounds and open his own company on the territory of London's Stag Field airport. The independent operation proved to be successful and in 1928 the Canadian branch of the company appeared. The main products of the company in the 20-30s of the XX century were small aircraft. At first, these were biplanes, and then monoplanes, which were used for flight training and transportation of passengers almost all over the world. Before the outbreak of World War II, the company developed two passenger aircraft, and during the war, the famous wooden multipurpose combat aircraft Mosquito, which was used as a reconnaissance aircraft, bomber, interceptor fighter and fighter-bomber, brought the company the well-deserved fame.

Sir Geoffrey De Havilland