DH.14 Okapi
General information
Type	Day bomber
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Airco /de Havilland
Status	abandoned prototype
Primary user	Royal Air Force (trials only)
Number built	3
History
First flight	1919

Thede Havilland DH.14 Okapi was a British two-seat day bomber of the 1910s built byde Havilland. The aircraft was designed as anAirco DH.4 andDH.9 replacement, but it never entered production.

TheOkapi was a scaled-up Airco DH.9 with a bigger engine, (theRolls-Royce Condor) intended as a replacement for the DH.4 and DH.9. Three were built, but due to the end of theFirst World War theRoyal Air Force was reluctant to accept them. The third aircraft was the first to fly, and it was completed by Airco as theDH.14A, a two-seat long-rangemail plane. The two military aircraft were completed by de Havilland in 1921 and used for trials. One suffered a fatal crash atBurnham Beeches on 10 February 1922 and no production aircraft were ordered.

The third aircraft was completed as the DH.14A to compete in theDaily Mail transatlantic flight competition.^[1] It had aNapier Lion engine and increased 586 imp gal (2,660 L; 704 US gal) fuel capacity.^[1] With the winning of the prize byAlcock and Brown the project was abandoned.^[1] The aircraft, registered G-EAPY, was then to be used bySidney Cotton, who intended to try for theAustralian government's£10,000 prize for a flight between England and Australia.^[1]Keith andRoss Smith won that prize before Cotton was ready.^[1]

The aircraft was loaned by Airco to Cotton to attempt the first flight between London andCape Town.^[1] Cotton and an engineer from Napier leftHendon Aerodrome on 4 February 1920, but soon forced landed at Cricklewood with oil problems.^[1] Cotton reached Naples on the 21 February but they failed to find the aerodrome at Messina and theyforce-landed on a nearby beach.^[1]

G-EAPY was rebuilt by Airco with an additional third cockpit and sold to Cotton for use in theAerial Derby.^[1] The aircraft was badly damaged when it forced landed following an onboard fire near Hertford on 24 July 1920.^[1] When the other two DH.14s were completed by de Havilland at Stag Lane in 1921 the DH.14A was repaired again and joined the test flying with a military serial number.^[1]

• DH.14 – two-seat day bomber with aRolls-Royce Condor engine, two built.
• DH.14A – two-seat long range mailplane with aNapier Lion Engine, one built.

 United Kingdom

• Royal Air Force

Data from The British Bomber since 1914^[2]

General characteristics

• Crew: Two
• Length: 33 ft11+1⁄2 in (10.351 m)
• Wingspan: 50 ft 5 in (15.37 m)
• Height: 14 ft 0 in (4.27 m)
• Wing area: 617 sq ft (57.3 m²)
• Empty weight: 4,484 lb (2,034 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 7,074 lb (3,209 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 ×Rolls-Royce Condor I water-cooledV12 engine, 525 hp (391 kW)
• Propellers: wood fixed pitch propeller

Performance

• Maximum speed: 122 mph (196 km/h, 106 kn) at 10,000 ft (3,000 m)
• Endurance: 5 hours
• Rate of climb: 400 ft/min (2.0 m/s)^[3]

Armament

• Guns:
  
  • 1 × fixed forward-firing synchronised 0.303 in (7.7 mm)Vickers machine gun
  • 1 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm)Lewis gun onScarff ring
• Bombs: 6 × 112 lb (51 kg) bombs in two fuselage bomb bays

• 1919 in aviation

Related lists

• List of de Havilland aircraft
• List of bomber aircraft

Wikimedia Commons has media related toDe Havilland DH.14 Okapi.

• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985). Orbis Publishing.
• Jackson, A.J. (1974).British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 2. London: Putnam.ISBN 978-0370100104.
• Jackson, A. J. (1987).De Havilland Aircraft since 1909 (Third ed.). London: Putnam.ISBN 978-0851778020.
• Mason, Francis K. (1994).The British Bomber since 1914. London: Putnam.ISBN 978-0851778617.

• De Havilland aircraft
• Single-engined tractor aircraft
• Biplanes
• 1910s British bomber aircraft
• Aircraft first flown in 1919
• Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear

• Use dmy dates from January 2018
• Use British English from January 2018
• Commons category link from Wikidata