AIRCO DH 10

Geoffrey de Havilland left his position at the Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough, to join George Holt Thomas' Aircraft Co., Ltd, in May 1914, charged with the creation and control of a design office within that company. He brought with him considerable design and flying experience built up during his 3'/, years at Farnborough. De Havilland's first design for his new employer was the DH1, a two-seat single-engine pusher to the same basic formula as the Factory's FE2, in the design and development of which he had taken a leading part. As early as February 12 1915, he was considering the idea of a twin-engine two-seater with two 100-hp Gnome Monosoupapes mounted as tractors on the lower wing. Span was evidently expected to be about 45 ft, but the idea got no further than a few rough sketches. With the DH2 single-seat scout prototype completed, de Havilland turned his attention again to the question of a twin-engine two-seat aircraft with pusher power units, 'two Austro-Daimler or similar engines', and fuel for 6 hours flight. Spans of 50ft, 55ft and 60ft were considered; loaded weights over the range between 3,2001b and 4,0001b were quoted, but the included armament load was only 1001b, representing a single gun and ammunition. By July 27 1915 de Havilland had jotted down a basic specification for a larger and heavier three-seat biplane with two 140-hp RAF 4a engines, and a loaded weight of 7,0001b that included 5001b enigmatically listed as 'ballast', but clearly capable of consisting of bombs. An accompanying sketch suggested that the fuselage would be below the lower wing, and that the engines would be in mid-gap, as close together as mutual propeller-tip clearance would permit, Equal-span wings of 70ft span by 9ft chord were indicated, but rough calculations of wings 70ft by 8ft, 65ft by 9ft, and 60ft by 7ft were included. Flight endurance of 5 hours was proposed.

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