De Havilland Aircraft Company

During 1940, the company also expanded further with the acquisition of Airspeed Limited (see separate page) which operated at Portsmouth on the south-coast.  Producing aircraft such as the Oxford, Horsa Glider, Ambassador and Consul, Airspeed initially operated with its own product identity.  However, by 1951 it had merged fully with The De Havilland Aircraft Company Limited and was completing production Vampire Trainers for the military.

Over the years De Havilland, the company and de Havilland, the family faced many set backs. 

In 1943, the founder's 2nd eldest son John was killed in a freak mid-air collision in a Mosquito over St Albans whilst in 1946, eldest son Geoffrey de Havilland Junior lost his life whilst carrying out high-speed trials in the DH108 Swallow, a tailless swept-wing aircraft.

Better times followed for a short period when company Company Test Pilot John Derry is believed to have been the first British pilot to exceed the sound barrier in the DH108 in 1948.  

Danger nevertheless was always evident in the life of any test pilot and Derry himself, along with observer Tony Richards, were to tragically crash at Farnborough Air Show on 6th Spetember 1952 whilst displaying a DH110 Sea Vixen.

The company then suffered its biggest tragedy and set back with an aircraft considered to be 'one of the greatest technological advances of the age'.  

The DH106 Comet, the worlds’ first pressurised jet airliner, suffered a series of disasters between October 1952 and April 1954.  With their most significant aircraft grounded for 4 years it allowed the US Boeing Company to capture the valuable Trans-Atlantic market and secure airline confidence worldwide.

Metal fatigue, a new problem for aircraft construction, was found to be the cause and although Comet returned to service in 1958, the impetus had been lost.

De Havilland Entrance Gate at Hatfield

The re-organisation of the aircraft industry at the end of the 1950's saw the De Havilland name survive although in 1963 it was renamed De Havilland Division of Hawker-Siddeley Aviation.  

It continued to produce many of its innovative designs such as the three-engine DH121 Trident and the DH125 Jet Dragon (later known as the HS125 / BAe125).  

Innovation continued under British Aerospace well into the 1990's with major involvement in the A300 programme (HBN100) and HS / BAe146, one of the most successful of the European 'Feeder-liners'.

Hatfield was finally closed its doors in 1993 and although many mourn its loss, the site today employs more people than it did during it's heyday of aircraft making.

Genealogy