de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover

de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover is a small [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] that was built by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (DHA) in the 1940s and 1950s.

The aircraft had some similarities with the two-engine British-built [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] but used a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] configuration.

Design and Development


Design work on the DHA-3 began in 1946 after DHA identified a need to replace the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] then in widespread use in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Although the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Dove was being produced at the same time, DHA saw that the Dove was not entirely suitable for Australian conditions.

de Havilland Australia Drover VH-DHM is operated by the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society. It is seen here at the HARS facility at Wollongong Airport.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]

Using the Dove as a starting point, DHA designed an aircraft with three four-cylinder [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engines instead of the Dove's two[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] six-cylinder engines and a fixed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] instead of the Dove's retractable [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Like the Dove the DHA-3 was sized to carry 8 to 9 passengers with a single [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The result was an aircraft with the same [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as the Dove and a slightly shorter [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The name 'Drover' was selected by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] after suggestions for a name were invited from DHA employees.

Mr Thomas King from the Drawing Office came up with the winning name.

The first DHA-3 Mk. 1 Drover took to the air at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 23 January 1948 piloted by Brian (Black Jack) Walker, DHA's chief [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The second aircraft did not fly until December 1949, while the first aircraft was delivered in October that year.

After entering service, by 1952 the type's shortcomings were becoming apparent.

These included the aircraft's lack of power, especially in hot weather, and an unfortunate tendency for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
to fail in-flight, resulting in the loss of two aircraft.

The propeller problem was overcome by replacing the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
fixed-pitch propellers, modified aircraft being re-designated the DHA-3 Mk. 1F.

All but the three aircraft that had crashed by that time were brought to this standard.

The propeller change however did nothing to improve the type's performance. In a bid to improve lift all Mk. 1F aircraft were further modified with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in place of plain flaps, and were once again re-designated, this time as the DHA-3 Mk. 2.

Sixteen aircraft had been delivered by the end of 1952, but the problems suffered by the type stalled further sales for several years.

The last four of the twenty Drovers built were produced in 1953 but were not sold until 1955 and 1956.

In another bid to rectify the type's poor performance DHA re-engined seven Mk. 2 aircraft with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engines driving Hartzell feathering [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Changes were also made to the flap control system and the tail wheel assembly.The first modified aircraft, re-designated as a DHA-3 Mk. 3, was returned to its owner the Royal Flying Doctor
Service of Australia (RFDS) on 4 June 1960.

Three Mk. 3s were later further modified; two aircraft operated by the NSW Section of the RFDS were modified in 1962 as the Mk. 3a with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] altered to have seven degrees of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (14° according to one source) and the span increased by 2 ft (61 cm).

The third was modified as a Mk. 3b with an increase in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of 300 lb (137 kg) to 6,800 lb (3,087 kg).

Operational history


New aircraft deliveries

The type entered service with the Australian Department of Civil Aviation (DCA, now the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien])
in 1949, the DCA operating the first two aircraft.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and the RFDS took delivery of their first aircraft in 1950, eventually receiving five and six new aircraft respectively.

Qantas placed the Drover into service on its routes in what was then known as the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Like many other aircraft types before and since, the Drover was inadequate in the demanding operating conditions of the island and of the surviving four aircraft (see below), three left Qantas service in 1954 and 1955.

The last was retired by Qantas in 1960.

The surviving DCA aircraft (see below) was also withdrawn and offered for sale in the latter 1950s and was sold at the end of 1959.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (TAA) briefly evaluated the prototype for a month in late 1950 and then received the first two of its eventual three new Drovers in 1952 (the third was delivered in 1956).

TAA operated them on scheduled services in[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and as [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] aircraft, one of them as one of the six
used by the RFDS. One aircraft crashed in January 1952 only five weeks after delivery and the other two were transferred to the RFDS in 1963 and 1964.

The last main operators of new Drovers were the Australian Department of Health, which used two on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
aeromedical operations (one crashing in 1957); and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which took delivery of two aircraft built for Qantas but
refused by that company when the type's problems became apparent.

The last aircraft built was delivered as a Mk. 2 to a private individual in July 1956.

Propeller problems

On 16 July 1951 the third Drover built (registration VH-EBQ in service with Qantas), crashed off the coast of New
Guinea (in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] near the mouth of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) after the centre engine's propeller failed.

The pilot and the six passengers on board were killed. As of November 2008 this was the last fatal accident
suffered by Qantas. At the time of the crash the aircraft was only ten months old.

The prototype Drover VH-DHA was [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] between [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 16 April 1952.

The port propeller failed, a propeller blade penetrated the fuselage and the pilot was rendered unconscious; the ditching was performed by a passenger.

On this occasion the occupants survived the ordeal to be rescued.

A third aircraft (VH-EBS, also owned by Qantas) suffered a propeller failure while still on the ground in September the same year.