When people talk about vintage aircraft these days one of the first to spring to mind is the De Havilland (DH) 82 Tiger Moth. The reason that the DH 82 Tiger Moth is such a famous plane is largely two fold. First of these is their fascinating story of the development of these planes by the De Havilland brothers, and second is their role in many of the worlds Airforces, including Australia’s own RAAF Also of interest is the role of the aircraft after its military service was over.

Hopefully after reading this you will have an insight into not only the history of this great plane, but also a realisation of the potential of trees to be used in a way not commonly considered.

The DH82 Tiger Moth resulted from a line of development that began in 1925 with the first DH60 Moth. This was a light aircraft, which epitomised private flying in the post World War One period. The De Havilland brothers designed the Moth in the attempt to create a plane that was easy to fly, cheap to purchase and maintain, and small to minimise hanger space required. The Tiger Moth was a rugged single bay biplane design with a wooden (Spruce) structure, covered by fabric on the wings and tail surfaces, and ply on the fuselage. It was powered by a De Havilland Gypsy III, a 130 horse power engine, had a range of 300 miles (483 km), a cruising speed of 85 mph (136 km/h), a top speed of 109 mph (175km/h), and could climb at 700 Ft/Min (213.35 m/Min) to a ceiling of 17000 Ft (5181.30 m) (Sharp, 1960). The specifications of the DH 82 Tiger Moth are outlined in the table below from Forsyth, 1995

The low purchase and maintenance costs, and the manoeuvrability of the DH60 Moth made the plane ideal for use by the military in training new pilots, but modifications were required to make it suitable. Such modifications included moving the top centre section forward and sweeping the wings back to improve access and escape, and the installation of an inverted engine to improve forward view and ground clearance. The first DH82 Tiger Moth was flown form Stag Lane Aerodrome by Huburt Broad on October 26, 1945 (Sharp, 1960). This was the first of 8,811 to be built between that time and late 1945, with construction occurring in Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Finland and Norway. The DH 82 was further subdivided into three types, the DH 82A, DH82B, and DH 82C. The DH 82A is the most common and the original of the Tiger Moths, and therefore gains the most focus in this case. The DH 82B was a radio controlled target plane, dubbed the Queen Bee. The DH 82B consisted of the wooden hull of the old DH 60 for lightness and the mechanics and wing assembly of the DH 82A. It was controlled by radio signals from the ground and used for anti- aircraft gunnery training. The DH 82C was the Canadian constructed Tiger Moths, with modifications made to make the plane more suitable for the Canadian environment. These adaptations included enclosing the cockpit, and adding brakes and a tail wheel to assist in landing (Wilson, 1994).

The Tiger Moth became the standard trainer of the RAF and Commonwealth countries during World War Two. In Australia’s RAAF, some 861 DH 82A’s were in service between 1940 and 1957, when the last was retired (Aviation Historical Society of Australia, 1971). The Tiger moth equipped the twelve Elementary Flying Training Schools (EFTS), and flew with 62 other RAAF units in activities ranging from air ambulance, air-sea rescue, air observation posts, and for armament, gunnery, navigation and parachute training (Wilson, 1994). There is a memorial to the EFTS and the Tiger Moth in Narrandera, NSW, where a restored DH 82A is on display to the public in a building in the towns park as a constant reminder of the significant role of this aircraft in our nations history. This is pictured below.

Aircraft construction requires more from the natural qualities of timber then any other industry that uses wood for structural purposes. Material of the highest quality is demanded and its selection and preparation must be stringently inspected (Robins, 1975). This naturally leads to a greater expense and wastage of materials. Despite this, wooden planes were cheaper to build, having lower plant requirements, little specialised tooling and low labour proficiency requirements then metal constructions. Wood also provided a very stable flying structure resistant to a broad range of stress factors. The ease of repair was another strong advantage of wooden structures, especially when the majority of Tiger Moths built were used as training planes. Tiger Moth wings were constructed mainly of wood, with the main load being carried on a front and rear spar. These were of solid timber lightened out by spindling out some of the form places not likely to cause structural weakness. Sitka spruce was the timber used in the construction of Tiger Moths due to its suitability in meeting these requirements (Robins, 1975). The characteristics of stika spruce are detailed below.

Picea sitchensis (Sitka Spruce) is a northern temperate conifer growing naturally on the Pacific coast belt of Canada and the United States of America. It is widely grown in plantations in the United Kingdom, particularly Wales, although it does not attain the same size there as in its natural location. The timber from Sitka spruce is mostly straight grained, fine and even in texture with a creamy white colour and pinkish tinge. It is a non-resinous, non-durable timber, without odour and therefore non-tainting, is soft and light in weight, and generally fast grown under UK conditions. The grain varies from straight to spiral, and the texture is coarse. Plantation timber weighs around 400 kg/m³ when dried compared to 450 kg/m³ for naturally occurring timber.

The timber dries very rapidly under both air and kiln conditions, but care is needed to avoid degrade as it is liable to twist and cup, and collapse is also likely to occur. Sitka timber works very well under tools, with the exception of the soft early wood that has a tendency to crumble under sawing and planing.

Sitka spruce is mainly used for construction and carpentry, but was also commonly used for aircraft construction because of its high strength to weight ratio. Since the strength properties vary considerably with growing conditions, selective grading is vital if the timber is to be used in aircraft construction.

Aviation Historical Society of Australia (1971). RAAF aircraft, 1921- 1971. Aviation Historical Society of Australia, Sydney.

Forsyth, J. (1995) The DH 82A Tiger Moth in Australia. Skyline Publications, Mount Waverley, Victoria.

Patterson, D. (1988). Commercial timbers of the world, 5th Edition. Gower Technical Press, Aldershot, England.

Robins, J.G. (1975) The wooden wonder: A short history of the wooden airplane. Rigby, Adelaide.

Sharp, C.M. (1960) D.H: an outline of De Havilland history. Faber and Faber, London.

Wilson,S. (1994) Tiger Moth, CT-4, Wackett and Winjell in Australian Service. Aerospace Publications, Weston Creek, ACT.

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