Airco D.H.9

History

A British light bomber heralding from the end of the First World War, these aircraft would see significant service in Greece, 42 examples being delivered between 1918 and 1920.

With the Hellenic Naval Air Service they would see the brunt of their service used on bombing missions during the Greco-Turkish War until October 1922. In post-war service, six D.H.9s were converted to a hydroplane configuration in 1926, whilst a small number remained in general service at trainers until as late as 1932. 

Despite being a development of the popular D.H.4, the aircraft was largely considered inferior than the aircraft it was meant to replace - The Galloway Adriatic powerplant was less powerful than expected and had reliability issues. 

In Greek service a number of liveries employed, with the most common perhaps being the olive drab, with roundels on the bottom side of the lower wings and upper side of the top wings, with a painted fin flash rudder.

Design

With an all-new fuselage and engine from the D.H.4, the D.H.9 originally failed to meet the high expectations of it's predecessor, but after rectifying the powerplant issues by replacing the engine the aircraft began to come into it's own.

The construction methods were similar too, with a frontal fuselage clad in plywood whilst a wire-braced box girder structure was used aft of the cockpits. Up to 210 kg of bombs would be carried by four underwing racks.