The Dove In Australian Service

The prototype Dove G-APGJ flown by Geoffrey Pike had its maiden flight at Hatfield on 25 September 1945, which was the 25th anniversary of the incorporation of the de Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd. Coming only six weeks after the end of the war it was quite symbolic that the name Dove (after the bird of peace) had been selected for the D. H. 104. The depth of resources at de Havilland in that era becomes quite evident when one realises that apart from the airframe, both the engines and propellers were also produced in-house. The engines were new Gipsy Queen 70 engines of 330hp each which were fitted with de Havilland Hydromatic three-bladed, constant speed, feathering and braking propellers. Although the Dove is markedly different in design from Mr Bishop’s earlier masterpiece, the Mosquito, some aspects of the family resemblance are quite unmistakable.

An early change following trials at Farnborough was the enlargement of the tail fin with a dorsal extension to improve control while flying on one engine. This later had a curve fitted to it. Apart from that, most other changes were brought about by increases in engine power. Accommodation was provided for either 11 passengers carrying 331b of luggage each and no toilet or eight passengers with a toilet. After making full allowances for take-off and climb to 8,000ft cruise altitude, fuel reserve of 45min and a constant 20mph headwind, this enabled a full 2,1781b payload to be carried for a maximum stage length of 250 miles. Gross weight was 8,500lb.

Numerous changes and improvements were implemented during the Dove’s production life. An executive version the six-seater Dove 2 was introduced during 1948. Most sales of this mark were to corporate customers or to VIPs such as the three aircraft sold to the Maharajahs of Baroda, Bikaner and Jaipur in India. To cater for survey work, the Dove 3 was a projected model fitted with oxygen and a remote-controlled vertical camera. The 48th production airframe was completed to Specification C. 13/46 and as the Dove 4 became a prototype for a military communications aircraft. This was modified by removing the front starboard seat to provide space for a dinghy and the accommodation was reduced to seven passengers and two crew. Given the designation Devon C. Mk 1 an initial batch of 30 were delivered to the RAF in 1948 and many others were supplied to air forces around the world.

Constant improvements to the Gypsy Queen engines aided Dove development. The original engine was the fuel-injected Gypsy Queen 70 developing 330hp at take off. From 1948 the Gypsy Queen 70-3 was available and in 1952 the 340hp Gypsy Queen 70-4 was offered as an option as the Dove 1 B or 28. The 1 A and 2A Doves and subsequent aircraft with “A” suffixes were custom built Doves for US customers. In 1953 the availability of the 380hp Gypsy Queen 70 Mk 2 in the Dove 5 and 6 enabled an increase in gross weight to 8,8001b. During 1960 a resurgence in business aviation orders led to two new six seater versions, the Dove Custom 800 and the Dove 8. The former was for Transatlantic customers with over 100 being delivered while the latter was the British equivalent. Both versions were fitted with the 400hp Gypsy Queen 70 Mk 3 engine. The Dove 7 was an 8-11 passenger version of the Dove 8.

Apart from the standard versions some Doves were re-engined with alternative powerplants. The Riley Aeronautics Corporation converted several as the Riley Turbo Executive 400. This version was powered by 400hp Lycomings and had a swept fin and restyled cabin and flight deck. Several others were converted by McAlpine Aviation Ltd in the UK but not all had the swept fin. The most radical Dove conversion was the Carstedt CJ-600A Jet Liner intended for third level use. In this modified version the Dove fuselage was extended by 87 inches with the addition of a 58 inch section forward and another 29 inch section aft of the wing. The cockpit roof was lowered to the cabin roof level, the fuel tanks were moved to the wing leading edges and the gross weight increased to 10,0001b. A substantial increase in power was provided by two AiResearch TPE 331 turboprops of 575hp each. A total of six such conversions of this type were carried out.

Because of the Dove’s price of 14,000 pounds in 1946 (less radio and de-icing system), most sales were to airline operators rather than to the charter sector of the industry. The ready availability of war-surplus aircraft offered much competition to new aircraft such as the Dove. However despite the apparent initial price handicap, the Dove was destined for quite a surge in demand. During April 1946 the 3,229th and last Mosquito was constructed at Hatfield and some of this production capacity was then directed to the Dove production line. The Dove was so popular that almost 2M pounds of orders were placed before the first prototype had completed its Certificate of Airworthiness trials. Following the granting of the C of A on 2 May 1946, deliveries were about to come off the line to many waiting customers.

The order book for Doves stood at 220 aircraft during June 1946 and plans were initiated to increase the production rate to one aircraft a day and this was achieved by the northern summer of 1947. Following this lift in production, a total of 180 Doves had been delivered by August 1948. Doves were either flown to their new owners or were shipped by sea. In the latter case, the dismantled components were sprayed with an anti-corrosive and packed in five crates the largest of which was 35’8″ long to accommodate the fuselage, fin, rudder and various other items. Because of heavy demand, the need for increased production facilities brought about a move to Hawarden during 1951. When Dove production ceased during 1967 a total of 542 had been delivered.

The Dove’s career in Australia was similar to that experienced in many other countries. Its comparatively high initial price put it beyond the reach of charter operators and for some time it served solely with airline companies. After several years had elapsed and Doves were gradually released from airline use, they began to be acquired by the charter segment of the industry. A total of 21 Doves were registered in Australia and some of these were re-registered several times.

Dove operations in Australia were inaugurated by Airlines (WA) Ltd in 1947. This airline was formed in September 1935 and the first service was flown not long after on 9 December. Initially, the fleet consisted of a General Aircraft ST. 25 Monospar and a Spartan Three-Seater. Over the following years this well run airline steadily expanded and by the end of the war had quite a large network in Western Australia. A range of interesting aircraft were to join the fleet and these types included D. H. 84 Dragon, Stinson Reliant, D. H. 90 Dragonfly, ST. 11 Monospar, D. H. 89A Rapide, Avro Anson and D. H. 82 Tiger Moth. In case eyebrows are raised at the choice of the last mentioned aircraft, taking into account its passenger capacity, it should be pointed out that the Tiger was used in experiments to test the viability of aerial dropping of dingo bait.

The arduous flying conditions took their toll and the composition of the fleet changed many times over the years. As the wartime era drew to a close, Airlines had a rather dated array of aircraft on its hands and searched for a modern, comfortable, reliable and economical aircraft on which to base its future services. The company selected the Dove as it was an aircraft which seemed well attuned to their needs. An order for the first Dove was placed in 1946 and a second aircraft was ordered prior to the first aircraft being received.

On 25 March 1947 the first Dove VH-AQP arrived in Fremantle on board the S. S. “Telemachus”. It was transported to Maylands by road for erection and was test flown by well known de Havilland pilot, Brian “Blackjack” Walker on 21 April. After completion of a demonstration flight on 17 May the Dove was damaged at Maylands when the undercarriage was not lowered for landing. This was a setback for the airline as the Dove was to have entered regular service the following day. De Havilland rallied to solve the problem and delivered their demonstrator VHAQO to Airlines and VH-AQP which was not badly damaged was taken to Bankstown where it was rebuilt. VH-AQO had been in fact the first Dove to arrive in Australia, having arrived at Banks town during December 1946. It was an early example of the type and was the second production Dove. Brian Walker flew VHAQO to Perth on 19 June 1947 and as RMA “Sunbury” it entered airline service on 29 June when it flew Perth-KalgoorlieNorseman-Perth. This aircraft provided a standard not previously seen in many areas of Western Australia joining as it did, a fleet consisting predominantly of Ansons. The second Dove VH-AZY arrived on board ship at Fremantle during February 1948 and was taken by road to Guildford for assembly. During the previous year Airlines had relocated their base to Guildford from Maylands. Brian Walker took VH-AZY for a first flight on 16 February and this aircraft then joined VH-AQO in service. During 1948 both Doves and four Ansons gave Airlines a flexible fleet with which to serve their network. In addition, VH-AQP which had been rebuilt and used by de Havilland as a demonstrator for a time was purchased by Airlines during September 1949 for 16,500 pounds. With three Doves now in service the type became the mainstay of Airlines’ operations for several years.

During 1951 an accident to one of the Airline’s Doves had widespread ramifications for the Airlines themselves and for air safety generally both in Australia and overseas. On 15 October 1951, VH-AQO operating Flight No 849 left Perth at 1336 hours for Kalgoorlie. On board were two crew, five passengers, and 5561b of freight. This was the second of two scheduled flights operated by VH-AQO from Perth to Kalgoorlie that day. The earlier flight had been without incident although the captain had reported several minor defects on return to Perth including “aircraft flies left wing low”. These matters were attended to prior to the second flight. The Dove proceeded at a planned altitude of 9,000ft in fine weather with slight turbulence. Routine position reports were received during the flight and at 1506 hours VH-AQO was cleared to descend into Kalgoorlie Airport. At 1518 hours the Dove reported “landing in seven” to Kalgoorlie Aeradio and the reply to the aircraft was to “stand by one. ” At 1520 hours Kalgoorlie Aeradio passed the landing instructions but no acknowledgement from the aircraft was received. Attempts were made by both Kalgoorlie and Perth to call VHAQO on various frequencies at frequent intervals and as no response was obtained, Emergency Procedure was introduced. At 2300 hours a ground party located the wreckage near Kurrawang Mission, 14 miles west of Kalgoorlie. All on board had been lost.

An examination of the wreckage the following morning revealed that the port wing with the port engine, portion of the centre section spar lower boom and the rear wing attachment bracket were located approximately 500 yards west of the bulk of the wreckage. Also west of the main wreckage and up to 800 yards away were the radio-compass loop, port wing root fillet, forward cabin escape hatch and a large piece of perspex from the cockpit window. It appeared that these components came off while the aircraft was still in the air and this could be explained by the port wing folding over and contacting the fuselage top and knocking off the radio-compass loop and perspex dome. The distortion to the fuselage roof would have sprung the forward cabin escape hatch and broken the cockpit perspex. An on-site superficial examination of the portion of the centre section main spar lower boom attached to the port wing, and the parts of the upper and lower booms found in the vicinity of the main wreckage made it apparent that the centre section main spar boom had failed while the aircraft was still in flight. Exhaustive laboratory tests were carried out and these proved conclusively that the cause of the accident was a structural failure of the centre section main spar. The evidence proved that this was brought about by a fatigue failure of the material in the lower boom of that component during normal flying operations.

Following the initial investigation of the wreckage on the morning after the loss of VH-AQO, all Doves in Australia were grounded to permit an inspection of their main spars to be carried out. At the time of the accident, VH-AQO had flown approximately 9,000 hours. When the centre section main spar boom inspection of VH-AZY was carried out, cracks were found in approximately the same position as in VH-AQO. At the time of the inspection, VH-AZY had flown 8,515 hours. None of the other Doves inspected had flown anywhere the number of hours of these two aircraft and no evidence of cracking was found.

The accident to VH-AQO and to Martin 2-0-2 aircraft in the USA greatly expanded the knowledge regarding the occurrence of fatigue failure in civil aircraft. Prior to the Dove and Martin 2-0-2 accidents, structural fatigue was not widely believed to be a practical source of danger to civil aircraft. This led to the need to identify “critical” portions of the structure of civil aircraft and the setting of a “safe life” for these critical components. In Australia, the Department of Civil Aviation with the assistance of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories began an examination commencing in the early 1950s of all types of aircraft on the Australian civil aircraft register. The first aircraft to be examined were types which had flown more hours than similar aircraft overseas. As unfortunate as the Dove accident unquestionably was, the important information obtained from the investigation was of lasting benefit to the aviation industry.

The grounding of the Doves created a multitude of problems for Airlines. Apart from the severe difficulties caused by the temporary removal of Doves from service, there was also the added annoyance of Dove VH-AZY being on the ground at Kalgoorlie when the grounding order was issued. This aircraft was dismantled and transported by road to Maylands where it arrived on 7 November. After the DCA examination was completed VH-AZY was again assembled in readiness for an eventual return to service. To enable them to maintain services Airlines made a speedy search for additional aircraft to bolster their fleet. Two Ansons were purchased and both were in service by early November. These aircraft went some way towards bridging the gap until the Dove grounding order was lifted during January 1952.

Three other Doves joined the Airline’s fleet. The first of these was obtained to replace VH-AQO and it arrived at Guildford on 19 February 1953. This Dove formerly VT-CQY was acquired from Airways (India) Ltd. After an overhaul and the granting of an Australian C of A it became VH-AWA and entered Airlines’ service on 8 April. The other two Doves were purchased from Mandated Airlines during 1953/54. Both aircraft were originally acquired by Mandated from East African Airways and had arrived in Lae on 28 July 1951. Like so many other aircraft to have been sold to New Guinea operators their performance in the Highlands was below expectations and they were subsequently sold to Airlines. The first aircraft arrived in Perth during December 1953 with Dove number two following a month later. One of these, VH-AWE and commenced flying on Airlines’ routes during March 1954 and the other Dove VH-MAB was put into storage.

During 1955 Airlines (WA) Ltd agreed to merge with MacRobertson Miller Aviation and the former airline’s routes and equipment were taken over. The new airline had quite a sizeable fleet comprising five Doves, five Ansons and five DC-3s. This inevitably led to a rationalisation of the fleet and in part the decision was taken to retain three of the Doves in service and dispose of the other two. As a consequence of this decision VH-AWB (formerly VH-AQP) and VH-AWE were sold to Southern Airlines during the latter half of 1955. The three remaining Doves were operated by MacRobertson Miller from Derby and Port Hedland to surrounding stations and were re-registered VH-MMN/P. Two of these aircraft were sold in 1959 and VH-MMN remained in use until 1968.

Another major Australian operator of the Dove was the Northern Territory Medical Service. The durability of the Dove was an important attribute on these services and they proved to be a useful and reliable aircraft while employed in this important and essential role. Several Doves were operated by the Service over a period of more than 20 years until they were eventually withdrawn from use and replaced by more modern aircraft. Some impressive cumulative hours were notched up by medical Doves and when for instance VH-FDV was retired from service during 1966 it had flown a total of 26,000 hours since arriving in Australia in 1947.

The Dove proved to be a popular aircraft with charter operators, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to some of the ex Airlines (WA) Ltd and Northern Territory Medical Service aircraft which ultimately were purchased by charter companies, other Doves were imported into Australia. Amongst these were three ex-RNZAF Devon C. 1s purchased by Murchison Air Charter. They had been in storage at Woodbourne, New Zealand for several years and were sold to Murchison on 7 October 1970. Two of them were eventually put into service and became VHCJX and VH-CJY. During the 1970s several Doves were withdrawn from use and one other was lost in an accident near Bankstown. This was VH-WST operated by Skyways Airlines which was involved in a mid-air collision with Piper PA30-160 VH-WWB on 13 March 1974. By the 1980s the number of Doves in Australian service had dwindled to two examples. These were VH-ABK and VH-ABM operated by Pay’s Air Service Pty Ltd of Scone, NSW. The former was withdrawn from use during January 1985 and VHABM is the sole remaining operational Dove in Australia. Now used for charter work VH-ABM was originally delivered to Iraqi Airways Ltd as YI-ABK on 25 November 1947. It was later sold to Jordan National Airlines becoming TJ-ACA and was subsequently transferred to the Jordanian Air Force carrying the serial D-100. Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons purchased it and to become G-ATGI on 12 July1965. The registration was cancelled on 1 November 1965 and was restored on 9 October 1969. It was re-registered on 20 May 1970 to McAlpine Aviation Ltd and was converted to a Riley Dove receiving its CofA on 2 November 1970. After this varied career the Dove arrived in Australia and became VH-ABM during July 1974.

The Dove was the first post war third level aircraft to see widespread service in Australia, although at that era the role was referred to of a “feeder liner”. It was a rugged reliable aircraft that served in some of the more damage environments in our continent. In many respects, it was the forerunner of the modern third-level aircraft we have in service today. The Dove carried on the proud tradition established by earlier de Havilland aircraft and played an important developmental role in the late 1940s and 1950s in our region.