DH 80A Puss Moth G-AEOA.......... 0697

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DH 80A Puss Moth G-AEOA Blue/Silver

1 Blue Card, 2 Silver Astrolux, 3 Ivorex : Kit includes decals, preformed wire parts, vac-forms, moulded wheels, hand carved pine propeller. History of the type, Card Modellers Handbook and step-by step instructions make this probably the easiest of all Hooton AirCraft to build, and is recommended for first time card modellers.

AIRCRAFT HISTORY

The DH 60 Moth, introduced in 1925, was, without doubt the most influential aeroplane ever to be produced for the private and club flying movement . By 1928, the enormous popularity of the type amongst an ever growing and increasingly demanding flying public led Geoffrey de Havilland and his design team at Stag Lane to look towards a replacement for the Moth. Thus was conceived the DH 80, designed to give pilot and passenger comforts, ease of operation, and improved performance unheard of in the open cockpit biplane Moth.

 The first unnamed prototype of the DH 80, E-1, made its first flight from Stag Lane on 9th September 1929. The aeroplane featured an enclosed cabin for its pilot and one passenger, seated in tandem seats below a high, strut braced thick section monoplane wing. The enclosed cabin offered an unusual level of comfort and an end to special flying clothing for pilots and passengers. The shoulder mounted wing was built in two halves with reduced section roots attached to the cabin tops, an arrangement which gave a less disturbed airflow over the wing centre section than with more conventional through-wing arrangements. The wings could be simply folded back supported by the wing bracing struts; an operation much simplified from the Moth arrangement which required the insertion of jury struts before folding back its biplane wings. In the engine department, DH's brilliant engineer, Major Halford, had persuaded the Gipsy engine to run inverted (cylinders down) and E-1 was the first DH aeroplane to feature the inverted Gipsy which gave greatly improved forward vision for the pilot over a smooth engine cowling. This configuration for the engine was to be incorporated on all DH Gipsy powered aeroplanes thereafter

G-AEOA is the Shuttleworth Collection's immaculately restored example of the Puss Moth, and regularly flies at displays at Old Warden. To all who see it, its muffled DH Gipsy engine and almost silent operation brings back to life the classic era of aviation.