Airco DH.16

The Airco DH.16 was an early British airliner designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, chief designer at Airco, and operated from 1919 to 1923. It was a redesigned DH.9A light bomber with a wider fuselage that gave an enclosed cabin seating four passengers, with the pilot in an open cockpit. The prototype first flew at Hendon in March 1919, and nine aircraft were built, all but one delivered to Airco's subsidiary Aircraft Transport and Travel. That company used the first for pleasure flying and then, on 25 August 1919, operated with this type the first regular daily international air service in the world, from London Hounslow Heath to Paris Le Bourget. On 17 May 1920 a DH.16 flew the first KLM service between Croydon and Amsterdam. After a fatal crash on 10 January 1923 the remaining DH.16s were withdrawn and scrapped.