De Havilland DH.34

The de Havilland DH.34 was a single-engined British biplane airliner built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in the 1920s, of which 12 were built. By 1921 operating experience with the DH.18 had shown that aircraft needed to be more efficient to improve the economics of air travel, and a new airliner, the DH.34 biplane, was designed to carry nine passengers, with a Napier Lion engine. The first prototype, registered G-EBBQ, flew on 26 March 1922 and the first aircraft was delivered to Daimler Airway on 31 March 1922, entering service on the Croydon to Paris route on 2 April. The stalling speed was too high and was blamed for a fatal crash in 1923, so extensions were fitted to the wings. Daimler operated six and Instone Air Line four, all leased, and Imperial Airways inherited six and kept the type until March 1926, when it abandoned single-engined aircraft in favour of multi-engined types.