what is it?
The de Havilland DH.66 Hercules was a British 1920s seven-passenger, trimotor airliner built by de Havilland Aircraft Company. With the Hercules, Imperial Airways took over responsibility for the airmail service from the Royal Air Force, which had been operating the obsolete Airco DH.10 Amiens. The Hercules effectively provided long-distance service to far-flung regions for Imperial Airways.
How to recognise it: 3 piston engines with propellers · 24.2 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 100 years ago, in 1926.
- Top speed is 1.6× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 24.2 m: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1926-09-30
- introduced
- 1926
- retired
- 1942
- status
- retired
- number built
- 11
- role
- airliner
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- makers
- de Havilland Aircraft Company
- engines
- 3× Bristol Jupiter VI
- passengers
- 7
- length
- 16.9 m
- wingspan
- 24.2 m
- height
- 5.6 m
- max take-off weight
- 7,103 kg
- top speed
- 206 km/h
- cruise speed
- 177 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 3,962 m
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q286903, Wikipedia: De Havilland Hercules (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.