de Havilland DH.60 Moth

In retrospect one can say that the first DH.60 arrived at the right spot at the right time: Next to the Moth’s maiden flight, 1925 also marked the birth of the first five Royal Aero Club flying schools and because of its simplicity and reliable powerplant, the Moth was the aircraft of choice to equip the clubs. Vice versa, the clubs gave de Havilland a secure supply of orders. De Havilland could now use this safety to concentrate on developing the Moth further into a mass-produced mass-market aircraft. So it can be said that the Moth made the Aero Clubs at least just as much as the Aero Clubs made the Moth. Because of this headstart, the Moth became the mainstay of the clubs even long after more modern aircraft became available.
With de Havilland’s habit of painting the wings and tailplane of the Moth in silver also came the clubs’ habit of distinguishing their aircraft by painting their fuselage in one distinctive club colour. Aircraft of the London Aero Club had a yellow fuselage (plus yellow struts and wheel caps); those of Newcastle a red one. Green stood for the Midlands and blue for Lancashire. Registration letters were black on the wings and, depending on the club colour, either black or white on the fuselage.
As the Royal Aero Club marketed the idea of flying clubs to other members of the Commonwealth, the de Havilland Aircraft Company followed suit and soon established subsidiaries in Australia and Canada to stock the local flying clubs there with Gipsy Moths. Canadian Moths were offered with a detachable canopy for winter flying. Other factories to licence-build the Gipsy Moth were the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company in Australia (which built 32 for the RAAF). Although built for flying clubs rather than for individual air cruising, the Australian Moths were the DH.60 L ‘Luxury’ version and were delivered with their fuselages sporting the L’s characteristic two-tone colour scheme rather than the fuselage entirely painted in the club colour as was customary in British flying clubs. Other manufacturers were Morane-Saulnier in France (40) and a company called Moth Aircraft Co. in the US (18).

DH 60 Moth in private use

Most Gipsy Moths belonged to flying clubs, but after the Prince of Wales purchased a Gipsy Moth (G-AALG) for his own private flying, the aircraft became the latest fad for high society. It did help that the redesigned DH 60L had larger cabin panels that enabled passengers to ‘step’ into the cockpit instead of sliding into it. The new enlarged luggage locker was also now big enough to store a set of golf clubs. In fact, fairways made great landing fields for those rich enough to belong to both a flying club and a golf club, and golf resorts in the more scenic parts of the UK were great weekend getaways for upper-class sporty young flying lads (and increasingly also sporty young flying ladies).
In addition the Moth was used for many record flights. The ‘Lonely flyer’ Sir Francis Chichester flew his Gipsy Moth from England to Australia, further to New Zealand and then across the Pacific to Japan. Although he originally planned to fly around the Earth, a crash in Japan convinced him to switch to sailing. (Out of respect for his aircraft, he named his yachts ‘Gipsy Moth II’, ‘Gipsy Moth III’ and most famously ‘Gypsy Moth IV’.) Of the aviatrixes, London secretary Amy Johnson flew her Gipsy Moth (G-AAAH “Jason”)
11,000 mi (17,703 km) to Australia and Jean Batten used a Gipsy Moth for her flights from England to India and England to Australia (the aircraft used to fly to India was G-AALG borrowed from the Prince of Wales).

DH 60 Moth in military service

Although the DH 60T was aggressively marketed as a military trainer, response was rather lukewarm. In particular the RAF initially purchased only a handful of aircraft for testing and found that many aspects of the Moth did not suit their method of military flight training. However, by 1931 the RAF had acquired 124 DH 60M Moths and these were used by the Central Flying school and other training units until 1939.
Moth trainers were however ordered by a number of foreign air forces including those of Argentina, Australia (as noted above), Austria, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the flying arm of the Danish Navy. Finland licence-built 22 Moth trainers, but equipped them with the old Cirrus engine.
Two Gipsy Moths were purchased by the Paraguayan government during the Chaco War. They were used as liaison aircraft. One was lost in a fatal accident at Ñu-Guazú Air Force Base and the other survived the war. It was transferred to the Paraguayan Aeroclub in 1936.
The bulk of military Moths however were civilian sportplanes impressed by their countries air forces and used as trainers and liaison aircraft. Like this, civilian Moths ended up flying for both the Nationalist and Republican air forces during the Spanish Civil War. This was repeated on a larger scale during the Second World War where Moths ended up flying, amongst others, for the air forces of Egypt, New Zealand, China (with several captured ex-Chinese aircraft flying for the Japanese), Ireland, Italy, Iraq, Belgian Congo, Dutch East Indies (later taken over by the Indonesian AF), South Africa, New Zealand and the US Navy.

Appearances in Popular Culture

The DH 60 Gipsy Moth was used in the 1985 Sydney Pollack film Out of Africa (film), flown by the character Denys Finch Hatton (played by Robert Redford) over the Kenyan savannah. The real-life Finch-Hatton also piloted a DH 60 Gipsy Moth.[citation needed]
A 1930 De Havilland DH 60G Gipsy Moth (construction number 1259, registration G-ABAG) appears in the 1995 film Cold Comfort Farm (film).

Variants

(listed in chronological order)

DH 60 Cirrus Moth
Prototype and early production aircraft powered by a 60 hp (45 kW) ADC Cirrus engine. 8 pre-production and 31 production aircraft built.

DH 60 Cirrus II Moth. (also known as the Hermes Moth).
Introduced in 1927 this variant had a slightly larger wingspan and decreased distance between the upper and lower wings. Powered by an uprated (105 hp/78 kW) Cirrus Hermes engine, 32 built.

DH 60 Genet Moth
A small number of DH 60 Moths were fitted with the Armstrong Siddeley Genet radial engine. The type was used by the Royal Air Force Central Flying School for display purposes, six built.

DH 60G Gipsy Moth.
First major overhaul of the design: Cirrus engine replaced by a 100 hp (75 kW) de Havilland Gipsy I engine.

DH 60GII (GipsyII Moth)
Powered by a 120 hp (89 kW) Gipsy II. Commonly referred to as a ‘Gipsy Moth’ just like the 100 hp (75 kW) version.

DH 60X
Optional ‘X’ braced undercarriage version of the early Gipsy Moth. (X-style undercarriage became standard for the DH 60M and all subsequent models)

DH 60L (Luxury)
Offered with wider let-down cockpit doors and an enlarged luggage locker behind the rear cockpit. The luxury version also featured a state-of-the-art 1930’s style two-color paint scheme for the fuselage.

DH 60M Moth (Metal Moth)
The original plywood box fuselage replaced with a construction of metal stringers covered with doped fabric. Although overall weight increased, maintenance became easier and metal fuselages became standard for all later versions. Four pre-production aircraft, 536 built by de Havilland at Stag Lane, 40 built by de Havilland Canada, 161 built by the Moth Corporation in the United States, 10 built by the Norwegian Army Aircraft Factory in Norway.

DH 60T (Moth Trainer)
Trainer variant of the Metal-Gipsy Moth. Rearranging of the inner wing bracing wires allowed for easier access to the front cockpit, a necessity for military pilots wearing parachutes. 2 prototypes and 47 production aircraft.
(Production for all Gipsy I and -II variants: 595 built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, 40 built by Morane-Saulnier in France, 18 built by the Moth Corporation in the United States, and 32 built by Larkin Aircraft Supply in Australia.)

DH 60GIII Moth
In 1931 the company took a de Havilland Gipsy II engine and turned it upside down and re-designated it the Gipsy III, this engine was then fitted to the Moth to create the DG 60GIII Moth, 57 built including ten as fuselages for the Royal Air Force as Queen Bee target drones.

DH 60GIII Moth Major
In 1934 from the 58th DH 60GIII onwards, the engine name was changed to Gipsy Major and the resulting variant was renamed the DH 60G III Moth Major. 96 were built including ten as fuselages for the Royal Air Force as Queen Bee target drones, production ending in May 1935. A final Moth Major was built by the de Havilland Technical School, giving total production of the DH 60GIII of 154.[3]

DH 60T (Tiger Moth Prototypes)
Eight prototypes with swept wings for a proposed RAF trainer. Because of the substantial changes, the aircraft entered production as the DH 82 Tiger Moth.