De Havilland Hornet Moth

what is it?

The de Havilland DH.87 Hornet Moth is a single-engined cabin biplane designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in 1934 as a potential replacement for its highly successful de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer. Although its side-by-side two-seat cabin made it closer in configuration to the modern aircraft that military trainee pilots would later fly, there was no interest from the RAF and the aircraft was put into production for private buyers.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 9.7 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 200 km/htop speed
• seats 1passengers
• size 885 kgmax take-off weight
• built 164made in total

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 92 years ago, in 1934.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 9.7 m: about 2 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

1934-05-09

status

still flying

number built

164

role

trainer and tourer

makers

de Havilland Aircraft Company

engines

1× de Havilland Gipsy Major I

crew

1

passengers

1

length

7.6 m

wingspan

9.7 m

height

2 m

max take-off weight

885 kg

top speed

200 km/h

cruise speed

169 km/h

range

—

ceiling

4,511 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.