Aircraft 5

Aircraft

A selection of pictures of aircraft seen at Croydon throughout it's history

De Havilland

In January 1920 Geoffrey de Havilland was working for Airco as technical director and chief designer. BSA bought Airco on the 20th of January 1920 from George Holt Thomas on the say-so of one BSA director, Percy Martin, having done inadequate due diligence. Within days BSA discovered Airco's true circumstances and shut it down. The resulting losses were so great BSA was unable to pay a dividend for the next four years. With Thomas's help de Havilland took modest premises at the nearby Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in Hertfordshire.and formed a limited liability company, De Havilland Aircraft Company Limited, incorporated on the 26th of September 1920. The directors were de Havilland, Arthur E. Turner and Charles C. Walker. Nominal capital £50,000. Known for its innovation, de Havilland were responsible for a number of important aircraft, including the Moth biplane which revolutionised general aviation in the 1920s, the 1930s Fox Moth, the first commercial transport able to operate without government subsidy, the wooden World War II Mosquito light bomber, and the passenger jet service pioneering Comet. The De Havilland company became a member of the Hawker Siddeley group in 1960, but lost its separate identity in 1963. Today it is part of BAE Systems plc, the British aerospace and defence business.

(below) Pilot Geoffrey de Havilland at the London Aerodrome Hendon 1912.