Airco DH.2

The Airco DH.2 a very nimble and rugged design, capable of making aces out of her pilots.

Though not much to look at by today's fighter aircraft standards - let alone World War One-era aircraft standards, the Airco-produced DH.2 would prove to be a rugged and reliable platform. The DH.2 was the product of one Geoffrey de Havilland and featured a pusher-type engine design that was contrary to the puller-type systems en vogue. Enemy aircraft kills by the DH.2 would rise steadily throughout the year of 1916, to which the DH.2 would amass double-digit scores between June through November of that year.

The DH.2 was a single-seat single engine biplane design. The pilot was seated extreme forward in a type of "tub" cockpit. A single Lewis-type 7.62mm machine gun was fitted in front of him and was set on a flexible mounting, allowing the gun to be trained in left, right, up or down as needed. This was, however, hardly practical in the middle of a frantic air fight and, as such, pilots resorted to flying with the machine gun in a fixed forward position and aiming the entire aircraft at their target. The single two-blade engine was mounted directly behind the pilot and could be of either a Monosoupape piston or Le Rhone rotary engine brand, either engine producing 100hp and 110hp respectively.