AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 27 / 198

Plate 27 of 198 · Between the wars · Single-seat ultralight monoplane

de Havilland D.H.53 Humming Bird

D.H.53 Humming Bird, painted as G-EBHX, the Shuttleworth Collection’s de Havilland D.H.53 Humming Bird (c/n 98), the first prototype, first flown at Stag Lane in 1923 and entered as No. 8 ‘L’Oiseau-Mouche’ in that year’s Lympne light aeroplane trials, rebuilt in 1960 by the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School and flown from Old Warden until it crashed in July 2012, since rebuilt and awaiting completion: Geoffrey de Havilland’s single-seat motor-glider, a wooden monoplane of 30 ft span with a strut-braced, fabric-covered low wing, an open cockpit and a 34 hp ABC Scorpion II flat-twin whose two cylinders stand out bare from each side of the nose, shown standing tail-down on its V-strut main gear and tailskid as last photographed complete at Old Warden: a royal blue fuselage, cowling, struts and undercarriage legs, silver-doped wings and tail with the fabric sagging between the ribs, a white ‘G-EBHX’ on both sides of the rear fuselage with a small maker’s legend beneath, a white ‘L’OISEAU-MOUCHE’ under the cockpit, a large black ‘G’ on the rudder, buff wheel covers and a wooden propeller with cream outer blades (the small legend under the registration is too small to read in photographs, so its wording is not a transcription).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-EBHX, the Shuttleworth Collection’s de Havilland D.H.53 Humming Bird (c/n 98), the first prototype, first flown at Stag Lane in 1923 and entered as No. 8 ‘L’Oiseau-Mouche’ in that year’s Lympne light aeroplane trials, rebuilt in 1960 by the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School and flown from Old Warden until it crashed in July 2012, since rebuilt and awaiting completion: Geoffrey de Havilland’s single-seat motor-glider, a wooden monoplane of 30 ft span with a strut-braced, fabric-covered low wing, an open cockpit and a 34 hp ABC Scorpion II flat-twin whose two cylinders stand out bare from each side of the nose, shown standing tail-down on its V-strut main gear and tailskid as last photographed complete at Old Warden: a royal blue fuselage, cowling, struts and undercarriage legs, silver-doped wings and tail with the fabric sagging between the ribs, a white ‘G-EBHX’ on both sides of the rear fuselage with a small maker’s legend beneath, a white ‘L’OISEAU-MOUCHE’ under the cockpit, a large black ‘G’ on the rudder, buff wheel covers and a wooden propeller with cream outer blades (the small legend under the registration is too small to read in photographs, so its wording is not a transcription). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (858 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the D.H.53 Humming Bird modelled here.

History

The D.H.53 Humming Bird

In 1923 the Daily Mail and the Duke of Sutherland put up prizes for a competition at Lympne in Kent, to find out how little engine an aeroplane needed. The rules allowed no more than 750 cc, and the main prize was for the longest distance flown on a gallon of fuel. Geoffrey de Havilland’s answer was the D.H.53, a small single-seat monoplane built of wood, with a fabric-covered low wing braced by struts to the fuselage, an open cockpit and, at first, a 750 cc Douglas motorcycle engine. Two were flown in the October trials. The fuel prize was shared by the English Electric Wren and the ANEC I, which both managed 87.5 miles on a gallon, but the D.H.53 was the more practical aeroplane of the three.

It was also one of the few that sold. De Havilland built 15 in all, most with a 698 cc Blackburne Tomtit inverted V-twin, and pitched them as aerial motorcycles for private owners. Alan Cobham flew one to an aero show in Brussels. The Air Ministry bought eight for the RAF, which used them for communications and experiments, and in 1925 one was fitted with a hook and released in flight from a trapeze slung beneath the airship R33, in trials to see whether an airship could carry its own aeroplanes.

The Lympne trials of the mid-1920s taught the industry that a usable aeroplane needed more power than a motorcycle engine could give, and de Havilland’s own next answer was the Moth of 1925, which made private flying possible in Britain. Two D.H.53s are in British museums. The Shuttleworth Collection’s G-EBHX, the prototype, flew at Old Warden from 1960 until 2012, and the De Havilland Aircraft Museum near St Albans holds the fuselage of the RAF’s J7326.

This airframe

D.H.53 Humming Bird G-EBHX

G-EBHXThe airframe modelled

G-EBHX (constructor’s number 98) is the first D.H.53, built at Stag Lane in 1923 and flown at Lympne that October. No records of its life before 1960 survive, but in that year it was rebuilt, re-engined with a 34 hp ABC Scorpion II flat-twin and given to the Shuttleworth Collection, where for half a century it was the only airworthy example of its type. It was flown sparingly, within gliding range of Old Warden, because its engine was never fully reliable, and in more than fifty years it logged just under 24 hours. On 1 July 2012, during a short refresher flight before an afternoon display, it lost control in gusty wind at low height and crashed on the aerodrome, and its pilot was killed. The airframe has since been rebuilt and returned to Shuttleworth for completion. The model shows it as it was last photographed whole at Old Warden: a royal blue fuselage, cowling, struts and undercarriage legs, silver-doped wings and tail with the fabric sagging between the ribs, a white “G-EBHX” on both sides of the rear fuselage with a small maker’s legend beneath, a white “L’OISEAU-MOUCHE” under the cockpit, a large black “G” on the rudder, buff wheel covers and a wooden propeller with cream outer blades, with the two cylinders of the Scorpion standing out bare from the sides of the nose.

See it at The Shuttleworth Collection

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the D.H.53 Humming Bird in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 198 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.