de Havilland DH104 Dove Mk.8 – de Havilland Aircraft Museum
Aircraft overview:
The Dove Mk.8, first flown in 1960, was the last production Dove type, the final aircraft being built in 1968. The Dove 8 is a business aircraft, typically with six passenger seats. Entry is into the lavatory compartment at the back, then through an internal door forward into the cabin. The lavatory compartment has an Elsan chemical toilet and fold-down wash basin. Compared with the Museum’s Dove 6, the Dove 8 has a higher dome over the cockpit, with deeper cockpit side windows plus radio controls in the roof. The higher-powered engines have enlarged oil cooler intakes above the spinners, and large exhaust thrust augmenter tubes under the engine starboard side using the exhaust to heat cooling air drawn through the cowling. More general Dove features include:
- cabin fresh air intakes above the windows,
- open inlet pipes protruding forward from the engine exhausts to provide exhaust-heated cabin hot air,
- a wing leading-edge intake on the port side of each engine for the pneumatic system compressors,
- porous strips in the wing and tail leading-edges for pumping out de-icing fluid,
- a fully castoring nosewheel allowing turning by differential braking while taxiing,
- a twin-tread anti-shimmy nosewheel tyre,
- a landing light on the nosewheel bay front door.
The asymmetric elevators (port tip cut off 14 inches short) were adopted to avoid a buffeting problem. If required, a spare engine could be transported inside the cabin.
Aircraft specifications:
Power Unit: Two 400 hp de Havilland Gipsy Queen 70 Mk.3
Wing Span: 57 ft (17.37 m)
All-Up Weight (A.U.W): 8,950 lb (4,060 kg)
Max. Speed: 235 mph (378 kph)
Ceiling: 21,700 ft (6,614 m)
Range: 1,175 miles (1,891 km)
On display at the Museum:
The Museum’s exhibit, Dove 8, was built at Chester in 1961. It was initially the company’s type demonstrator, later used as a 6-seat VIP communications aircraft by Hawker Siddeley, then British Aerospace. It was moved to the Museum in 2000.