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The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. It was a monoplane successor to the prewar de Havilland Dragon Rapide biplane. The design came about from the Brabazon Committee report which, amongst other aircraft types, called for a British-designed short-haul feeder for airlines. The Dove was a popular aircraft and is considered to be one of Britain's most successful postwar civil designs, in excess of 500 aircraft were manufactured between 1946 and 1967. Several military variants were operated, such as the ''Devon'' by the Royal Air Force, the ''Sea Devon'' by the Royal Navy, the type also saw service with a number of overseas military forces. A longer four-engined development of the Dove, intended for use in the less developed areas of the world, was the de Havilland Heron. ==Development== The development team for the Dove was headed by Ronald Eric Bishop, the creator of the de Havilland Mosquito, a wartime fighter-bomber, and the de Havilland Comet, the first commercial jet aircraft in the world. It had been conceived as a replacement to the pre-war de Havilland Dragon Rapide, and also needed to be competitive with the large numbers of surplus military transports in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Dove could also serve as a dedicated executive transport, which proved to be popular with overseas customers, particularly in the United States.〔Jerram, Mike. ("The last de Havilland." ) ''Flying Magazine'', 120 (9). p. 43.〕 Production of the Dove and its variants totalled 542 including 127 military ''Devon''s and 13 ''Sea Devon''s. The first deliveries to customers were made in Summer 1946, the final example of the type was delivered in 1967. Initial production of the Dove was at de Havilland's Hatfield factory, but from the early 1950s the majority of aircraft were built at the company's Broughton facility near Chester. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「De Havilland Dove」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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