Airco DH.9C

The Airco DH.9C was a British passenger biplane, a civil conversion of the surplus Airco DH.9 light bomber designed by Geoffrey de Havilland. After the First World War many DH.9 bombers were available to the emerging air transport business. At first the gunner's position behind the pilot was used to carry one passenger, the DH.9B added a second seat ahead of the pilot, and the DH.9C lengthened the rear cockpit to take another seat behind the pilot. Later four-seat examples held two passengers face to face under a faired dorsal canopy, and most had a slight sweepback to correct the shift in the centre of gravity. It was a two-bay tractor biplane with a fixed two-wheel undercarriage and tail skid, built of spruce and ash with wire bracing and fabric covering. The first four-seat swept aircraft, G-EAYT, received its certificate of airworthiness on 13 January 1922. Nineteen were produced for operators in the United Kingdom, Australia and Spain, and the last in service flew for Northern Air Lines until 1932.