Early Oddball WW1 Fighters - Airco DH.2 and DH.5

Replica Airco (Aircraft Manufacturing Company) DH.2 pusher and Airco DH.5 aircraft take to the skies over Omaka Aerodrome, in New Zealand. The Airco DH.5 was one of the first WW1 British fighters to be developed which featured an interrupter mechanism to allow the gun to fire through the spinning prop. Designer Geoffrey de Havilland was well aware of the visibility benefits afforded by his early DH.2 design, and so the backward stagger of the DH.5’s top wing was his attempt to provide the pilot of this ’tractor’ aircraft with the same degree of visibility as that of the older ’pusher’ design. *** Historical Machines TV — Free 7-Day Trial *** : See much more video material like this, and more, on our premier video-on-demand streaming service at It’ll cost you less that the price of a cup of coffee for a monthly subscription, and stere’s heaps to see that you won’t find on this channel. For more info on the DH.2 see: -- Copyright © 2016 Historical Aviation Film Unit This video material may not be reproduced in any form (except as an embedded video on any other website), without the written permission of the Historical Aviation Film Unit.