de Havilland, Iris (UK)

Geoffrey de Havilland, the famous British aircraft designer, designed the horizontally-opposed aircraft engine described below in 1908-1909. It was built to his specifications by the Iris Motor Co. of Willesdon, UK as described in the well-illustrated reference, "British Aircraft before the Great War", by Goodall and Tagg (G&T). The first two de Havilland aircraft were built independently by him during 1908-1910, first in Fulham and later in Newbury, UK (G&T). The second one, the de Havilland biplane No.2 was sold to the Royal Aircraft Factory and renamed their R.A.F. F.E.1. The R.A.F. hired de Havilland in 1911 and he continued development of the F.E.1, which led to the famous R.A.F. F.E.2 military aircraft series of WWI.


OL-300 -- {4.488 / 4.724 / 299.0} / {114 / 120 / 4899}

4cyl; Iris; 40-45hp@1500rpm; 1908-1911; Wt = 250#.
Liquid-cooled, single-ignition engine with ball bearings throughout.
G&T (for engine and applications); J1912 (with photo).
Applications: (UK) de Havilland biplane No.1 of 1909 (built, but not flown), biplane No.2 of 1910 (later the R.A.F. F.E.1); Jobling monoplane of 1910 (crashed on first flight).


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Updated 4/19/08