De Havilland Venom

what is it?

The de Havilland DH 112 Venom is a British post-war single-engined jet aircraft developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. Much of its design was derived from the de Havilland Vampire, the firm's first jet-powered combat aircraft; it was initially referred to as the Vampire FB 8 prior to the adoption of the Venom name. The Venom was developed during the late 1940s to fulfil Air Ministry Specification F.15/49, under which the aircraft was intended to be operated as an interim solution, lying between the first generation of British jet fighters – straight-wing aircraft powered by centrifugal flow engines such as the Gloster Meteor and the Vampire – and later swept wing, axial flow-engined combat aircraft, such as the Hawker Hunter and de Havilland Sea Vixen.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 12.7 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,030 km/htop speed
• size 6,985 kgmax take-off weight
• built 1,488made 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 77 years ago, in 1949.
• 🏎️Top speed is 7.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 12.7 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1949-09-02

introduced

1952

retired

1962

status

retired

number built

1,488

role

fighter-bomber

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

de Havilland Aircraft Company

engines

1× de Havilland Ghost 103

crew

1

length

9.7 m

wingspan

12.7 m

height

1.9 m

max take-off weight

6,985 kg

top speed

1,030 km/h

range

—

ceiling

12,009 m

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

family