AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 47 / 222

Plate 47 of 222 · Between the wars · Two-seat light touring and training biplane

de Havilland DH.60X Moth

DH.60X Moth (1928), painted as G-EBWD, the Shuttleworth Collection’s de Havilland DH.60X Moth, bought by Richard Shuttleworth in 1932 and the founding aircraft of the Collection, flown from Old Warden ever since: Geoffrey de Havilland’s wooden, fabric-covered two-seat light biplane of 30 ft span with folding, slightly staggered wings, single pairs of interplane struts, tandem open cockpits, a split-axle undercarriage and the upright four-cylinder 115 hp Cirrus Hermes II fitted in 1933, its cylinder heads standing proud of the cowling, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid as displayed and flown at Old Warden: cream fuselage and cowling with navy ‘G-EBWD’ on both sides, aluminium-doped wings, tailplane, fin and rudder with a black ‘G’ on the rudder and navy registration across the upper and lower wings, blue struts, undercarriage and corrugated centre-section tank, blue wheel covers with a white ring, a polished starboard exhaust and a varnished wooden propeller with an aluminium hub cap (shape from the L’Aéronautique three-view of May 1927 and the NACA three-view, scaled to G-EBWD’s 30 ft span, with the engine, undercarriage and markings following photographs of G-EBWD).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-EBWD, the Shuttleworth Collection’s de Havilland DH.60X Moth, bought by Richard Shuttleworth in 1932 and the founding aircraft of the Collection, flown from Old Warden ever since: Geoffrey de Havilland’s wooden, fabric-covered two-seat light biplane of 30 ft span with folding, slightly staggered wings, single pairs of interplane struts, tandem open cockpits, a split-axle undercarriage and the upright four-cylinder 115 hp Cirrus Hermes II fitted in 1933, its cylinder heads standing proud of the cowling, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid as displayed and flown at Old Warden: cream fuselage and cowling with navy ‘G-EBWD’ on both sides, aluminium-doped wings, tailplane, fin and rudder with a black ‘G’ on the rudder and navy registration across the upper and lower wings, blue struts, undercarriage and corrugated centre-section tank, blue wheel covers with a white ring, a polished starboard exhaust and a varnished wooden propeller with an aluminium hub cap (shape from the L’Aéronautique three-view of May 1927 and the NACA three-view, scaled to G-EBWD’s 30 ft span, with the engine, undercarriage and markings following photographs of G-EBWD). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (791 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Cirrus/Hermes); engine, crew and dimensions are for the DH.60X Moth (1928) modelled here.

History

The Moth

By 1924 the Lympne trials had shown that tiny ultralights of 30 hp or so were too feeble to be practical. Geoffrey de Havilland drew a larger and simpler machine: a wooden, fabric-covered two-seat biplane of 29 ft span with folding wings, so that it could be kept in a shed, and two open cockpits in tandem. For an engine Frank Halford cut the eight-cylinder Airdisco in half to make the 60 hp ADC Cirrus four. De Havilland, a keen lepidopterist, called it the Moth, and he flew the prototype G-EBKT for the first time at Stag Lane on 22 February 1925.

The Air Ministry, prompted by the Director of Civil Aviation, Sir Sefton Brancker, ordered Moths for five subsidised flying clubs that summer, and the type turned the light aeroplane club from an idea into a movement. Engines grew: the Cirrus II and III, then the Cirrus Hermes, and from 1928 de Havilland’s own Gipsy, which made the DH.60G Gipsy Moth. The DH.60X of 1928 took its letter from its new split-axle undercarriage, which replaced the cross-axle of the earlier Moths; the DH.60M had a steel-tube fuselage, and the DH.60GIII Moth Major an inverted engine.

Moths were flown on long-distance flights all over the world, the best known being Amy Johnson’s solo flight from Croydon to Darwin in May 1930 in the Gipsy Moth Jason, now in the Science Museum. About 2,100 DH.60s were built in Britain and under licence in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Norway and the United States, and they served as trainers with many air forces. The Moth gave its name to a family of de Havilland light aircraft, of which the Tiger Moth of 1931 was the most numerous, and for a generation “moth” was the word for any light aeroplane.

This airframe

de Havilland DH.60X Moth G-EBWD

G-EBWDThe airframe modelled

G-EBWD (c/n 552) was built at Stag Lane in 1928 and was bought by Richard Shuttleworth in 1932, his first aeroplane. In 1933 its 85 hp Cirrus III was replaced by the 115 hp Cirrus Hermes II that it still has. It escaped impressment in the Second World War, was stored at Old Warden, and has been flown from there ever since: no aircraft has been at Old Warden longer. The model shows it as photographed at Old Warden, standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid: cream fuselage and cowling with navy ‘G-EBWD’ on both sides, aluminium-doped wings, tailplane, fin and rudder, a black ‘G’ on the rudder, navy registration across the upper and lower wings, blue struts, undercarriage and corrugated centre-section fuel tank, blue wheel covers with a white ring, the Hermes cylinders standing above the cowling, a polished exhaust pipe along the starboard side and a varnished wooden propeller with an aluminium hub cap. The shape follows the L’Aéronautique three-view of 1927 and the NACA three-view, scaled to G-EBWD’s 30 ft span, with the engine, undercarriage and markings taken from photographs of G-EBWD.

See it at The Shuttleworth Collection

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Moth in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 222 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.