De Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide Competition ?

hesham

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Hi,

can I ask if there was a competition led to develop the De Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide
or not?,as I remember,the Westland submitted a rival concept,a twin engined eight seat
monoplane Project ?.
 
It was a private venture designed as a successor to the company's successful Dragon and using features from their less successful Express
 
Thanks,but as I read or remembered,the Westland submitted a Monoplane Project,and was
beaten by DH design ?.
 
There were plenty of small feederliner aircraft and projects at that time, all seeking a market with the smaller airlines both in the UK and overseas. No competitons though, as far as I am aware.
 
Schneiderman said:
There were plenty of small feederliner aircraft and projects at that time, all seeking a market with the smaller airlines both in the UK and overseas. No competitons though, as far as I am aware.

OK no competition but a rival design from Westland,did you hear about it ?,I think it was from
1929 ?.
 
Well the Westland IV and Wessex date from the earliest 1930s, a little earlier than the Rapide and hence more rivals with the Dragon. They may well have offered developed versions of the Wessex to potential customers. But like I said in the last post there were plenty of similar sized aircraft seeking sales at this time.
 
Hesham unless it's a government RFP, i.e. the Brabazon Commitee, there are no formal design competitions in the
commercial realm, it's a market driven competition and always has been.
 
Yes, much like buying a car now, you look at what is available and choose.
There are a small number of exceptions for Imperial Airways, although in these cases the spec. was written around a particular aircraft without competitive tender. Short Calcutta and Mayo Composite come to mind. There are a few others where it looks as if a small degree of competition may have arisen, the Short Kent seems to have had a competing design from Supermarine fielded against it. But that may be complete conjecture by me. First 'competitive' specs. were probably 14/38 and 15/38 for the Fairey FC1 and Short SC2
 
jcf said:
Hesham unless it's a government RFP, i.e. the Brabazon Commitee, there are no formal design competitions in the
commercial realm, it's a market driven competition and always has been.

That's right Jcf,a rival design didn't mean a competition.
 

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