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Captain Sir Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland, OM, CBE, AFC, RDI, FRAeS, (27 July 1882 – 21 May 1965) was a British aviation pioneer and aircraft engineer. His Mosquito has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built.^[1]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Aviation career 1.3 Retirement and death 1.4 Honours 1.5 Family 2 References

De Havilland was born on 27 July 1882, at Terriers Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the second son of the Revd Charles de Havilland and his first wife, Alice Jeannette (née Saunders).^[1] He was educated at Nuneaton Grammar School, St Edward's School, Oxford, and the Crystal Palace School of Engineering (from 1900 to 1903).

After engineering school, his first interest was in automotive engineering, building cars and motorcycles. He took an apprenticeship with engine manufacturers Willans & Robinson of Rugby, after which he worked as a draughtsman for the Wolseley Motor Company in Birmingham, a job from which he resigned after only a year.^[1] He subsequently spent two years working in the design office of an omnibus company in Walthamstow.

He married in 1909 and almost immediately embarked on the career of designing, building and flying aircraft to which he devoted the rest of his life.

De Havilland's first plane, built with money borrowed from his maternal grandfather,^[1] took two years to build and he crashed it during its first very short flight near Litchfield, Hampshire. A memorial today marks the place. Subsequent designs were more successful: in 1912 he established a new British altitude record of 10,500 feet (3.2 km), in an aircraft of his design.

He joined HM Balloon Factory at Farnborough, which was to become the Royal Aircraft Factory as it realised the importance of planes and shifted some attention away from balloons.^{[citation needed]}

In January 1914, he was appointed an inspector of aircraft in the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate. Unhappy leaving design work, in May, he was recruited to become the Chief Designer at Airco, in Hendon. He designed many aircraft for Airco all designated using his initials DH. Large numbers of de Havilland designed aircraft were used during the First World War flown by the Royal Flying Corps and later Royal Air Force.

Airco was bought by the BSA Company but BSA were only interested in using the company factories for car production. De Havilland raised £20,000, bought the relevant assets he needed and in 1920 formed the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware where de Havilland and his company designed and built a large number of aircraft including the Moth family of aircraft. In 1933 the company moved to Hatfield Aerodrome, in Hertfordshire. One of his roles was as test pilot for the company's aircraft, in all of which he liked to fly.

The company's planes, particularly the Mosquito played a formidable role in World War II and de Havilland was knighted in 1944.

He controlled the company until it merged with Hawker Siddeley Company after crashes of the Comet jet airliner in the mid-1950s.

De Havilland retired from active involvement in his company in 1955, though remaining as president. He continued flying up to the age of seventy.^[1] He died aged 72, of a cerebral haemorrhage, on 21 May 1965 at Watford Peace Memorial Hospital, Middlesex.

De Havilland was made an OBE in 1918 and CBE in 1934. He received the Air Force Cross in 1919, in recognition of his service in World War I, and was knighted in 1944. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1962. He received numerous national and international gold and silver medals and honorary fellowships of learned and engineering societies.

De Havilland was related to the famous actresses Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine - his father Charles and their father Walter were half-brothers.

In 1909 De Havilland married Louise Thomas, who had formerly been governess to de Havilland's sisters. They had three sons together.

Two of de Havilland's sons died as test pilots in de Havilland aircraft. One of these (also named Geoffrey) carried out the first flights of the Mosquito and Vampire and was killed flying the DH 108 Swallow while diving at or near the speed of sound. His youngest son, John died in an air collision in 1943. Louise suffered a nervous breakdown following these deaths and died in 1949.

De Havilland remarried, in 1951, Joan Mary Frith, herself a divorcée.

De Havilland's autobiography Sky Fever was published by Peter and Anne de Havilland in 1979.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Davenport-Hines, Richard. "Havilland, Sir Geoffrey de (1882–1965)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Accessed 2007-02-15.

• Smith, Ron (2002). British Built Aircraft - Greater London. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0 7524 2770 9. 

Persondata
NAME	de Havilland, Geoffrey Raoul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English aircraft engineer
DATE OF BIRTH	27 July 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH	Magdala House, Terriers Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England
DATE OF DEATH	21 May 1965
PLACE OF DEATH	Watford Peace Memorial Hospital, Stanmore, Middlesex, England