Physical Description:
Two-seat, single-engine World War I biplane observation and bomber aircraft; 400-horsepower Liberty V-12 water-cooled engine. American-built version of a British design. Fuselage light grey on sides, olive green on top.
Country of Origin
United States of America
Manufacturer
Dayton-Wright Airplane Co.
Date
1917-1918
Materials
Airframe: Wood
Covering: Fabric
General characteristics
- Crew: two
- Length: 30 ft 8 in (9.35 m)
- Wingspan: 43 feet 4 in (13.21 m)
- Height: 11 ft (3.35 m)
- Wing area: 434 ft² (40 m)
- Empty weight: 2,387 lb (1,085 kg)
- Loaded weight: 3,472 lb (1,578 kg)
- Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Eagle VII inline liquid cooled piston, 375 hp] (289 kW)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 143 mph (230 km/h) at sea level
- Range: 470 mi (770 km)
- Endurance: 3¾ hr
- Service ceiling: 22,000 ft (6,700 m)
- Rate of climb: 1,000 ft/min (305 m/min)
- Wing loading: 8 lb/ft (39.5 kg/m)
- Power/mass: 0.108 hp/lb (0.266 kW/kg)
- Climb to 10,000 ft: 9 min
Armament
- Guns: Forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun, Lewis gun on Scarff ring at rear
- Bombs: 460 lb (210 kg) of bombs
United States variants
- DH-4 : Two-seat day bomber biplane, built in the United States.
- DH-4A : Civil version, built in the United States.
- DH-4B : Rebuilt version of Liberty powered DH-4 for U.S. Air Service. Pilot's cockpit relocated to behind fuel tank, adjacent to observer's cockpit.
- DH-4B-1 : Increased fuel capacity (110 US gal/420 L).
- DH-4B-2 : Trainer version.
- DH-4B-3 : Fitted with 135 US gal (511 L) fuel tank
- DH-4B-4 : Civil version
- DH-4B-5 : Experimental civil conversion with enclosed cabin.
- DH-4BD :Cropdusting version of DH-4B
- DH-4BG : Fitted with smokescreen generators
- DH-4BK : Night flying version
- DH-4BM: Single seat version for communications
- DH-4BM-1 : Dual control version of BM
- DH-4BM-2 : Dual control version of BM
- DH-4-BP : Experimental photo reconnaissance version
- DH-4-BP-1 : BP converted for survey work
- DH-4BS : Testbed for supercharged Liberty
- DH-4BT : Dual control trainer
- DH-4BW : Testbed for Wright H engine
- DH-4C : 300 hp (220 kW) Packard engine
- DH-4L : Civil version
- DH-4M : Rebuilt version of DH-4 with steel tube fuselage.
- DH-4Amb : Ambulance.
- DH-4M-1 - postwar version by Boeing (Model 16) with new fuselage, designated O2B-1 by Navy
- DH-4M-1T - Dual control trainer conversion of DH-4M
- DH-4M-1K - target tug conversion
- O2B-2 - cross-country and night flying conversion for Navy
- DH-4M-2 - postwar version by Atlantic
- L.W.F. J-2 - Twin-engine long range development of DH-4 (also known as Twin DH), powered by two 200 hp (150 kW) Hall-Scott-Liberty 6 engines and with wingspan of 52 ft 6 in (16.04 m); 20 built for U.S. Post Office, 10 for U.S. Army.
