Freeware Focus: The David Garwood team DH89A Rapide for FS2004

By Andrew Herd (6 June 2005)

Watch video clips of the Dragon Rapide in the FlightSim.Com Cineplex

ust every now and again, someone designs a plane that not only flies just right, but looks just right. Some companies are specially favored and manage to pull off this trick again and again, de Havilland being a good example, with planes ranging from the Tiger Moth to the Mosquito to its credit. One of de Havilland's most beautiful biplanes, though one of its least-known aircraft, was the svelte DH89 Dragon Rapide, usually known just as the 'Rapide'. As an example of thirties aircraft design, I can think of precious little to beat the DH89 on sheer looks, ranging from its neatly trousered spats, through the artistic taper of its wings, to that sensual Moth tail.

The Rapide had its origins in an earlier plane, the DH84 Dragon. The Dragon was designed to bring a measure of twin-engine safety to scheduled services that were inclined to feature more landings than the passengers expected and also because the first generation of aircraft impressed into airline service simply couldn't pay their way. The DH84 could claim to be the first multi-engined aircraft that could fly passengers at a profit and it wasn't long before the airlines were banging on the manufacturer's door asking for improvements. de Havilland had, in fact, built a four engined biplane development of the Dragon, the DH86, but this wasn't economical on the shorter routes many of their customers operated - so they did a quick rethink and came up with a smaller version that shared many components with the DH86, but had two less engines. The prototype flew in 1934 and proved so popular that de Havilland went to the unusual step of upgrading it - in those days, airframe and engine design (and customer requirements) advanced so rapidly that manufacturers didn't usually bother to update existing hulls, the way we are used to seeing happen now - they just built completely new ones. In the Rapide's case, the upgrade meant adding a nose landing light, cabin heating and slightly thicker wing tips to soften the stall; then in 1937, they modified it again, adding small trailing edge flaps outboard of the nacelles, improvements which were greatly appreciated by pilots. The vast majority were engined with 200 hp de Havilland Gypsy Sixes driving fixed pitch props, though a few were retrofitted with Gypsy Queens and constant speed units in the early fifties.

Rapides were operated everywhere from Iceland to Chile and just about the only continent the plane did not fly from was Antarctica; quite a few were built for military service, mainly as navigation trainers. Some found themselves perched on skis, or floats; three went to Spain during the civil war and turned into warbirds, packing three machine guns and up to a dozen 27 pound bombs. The last one received its CofA as late as November '47 and fourteen still survive in flyable condition.

One of the DH89As that David Garwood has chosen to simulate in the package we are reviewing here is G-AGJG, built in 1941 for the RAF, before being transferred to Scottish Airways in 1943. After that it had an adventurous life, serving with BEA, Mediterranean Air Services in Cyprus, Island Air Services, Swansea Airways, the British Skydiving Club and South Staffs Skydiving Club, before its CofA was allowed to expire in 1974. Fortunately, it wasn't left to rot away like so many of its kin and the hull came into the care of the Duxford Aviation Society before being bought by Mark and David Miller, a father and son team who have led the decade-long task of restoring it. First flight of the rebuilt machine was made August 16 last year.

The package (FS9_DH89.ZIP) is just over 8 Mbs and decompressing it revealed a self-installing executable and a readme which gives brief details of the plane and the team that developed it. In addition to Dave, who did the visual model and the textures, the roll call is: Dave Booker - panel; Saverio Maurri - panel and gauges; Brian Withers - flight dynamics; and Mike Hambly - sound set. A couple of liveries are included in the default set, G-AGJG as it is now and with an RAF service livery in the shape of Dominie HG 961.

As you can see, the panel would be a one of a kind had its shape not been borrowed for the current generation of stealth planes. The Rapide being designed in the age before the 'standard six' layout gained the upper hand, de Havilland just kind of put the instruments where they happened to fit, resulting in the turn and slip indicator dominating the panel at top center. To be fair, you can't fly the DH89A well without paying attention to this gauge, because like many planes of the era, it has to be encouraged into the turns with a bootful of rudder - the slip needle tells you which pedal you need to tramp on to get you round in a balanced turn, all you have to do being to keep treading until it centers itself. The lower needle on this instrument tells you what rate of turn you are doing; just in case you have your doubts, there is an RAF issue turn indicator below it, but note that this is one of the old kind and lacks a bubble.

If you don't count the GPS, there are four pop-up panels: throttle quadrant; radios; electrics; and compass, this last being another military standard instrument of a similar style to the one in the default Vimy. If it was good enough for Alcock and Brown to fly the Atlantic with, who are we to complain, but I can imagine that many simmers will opt for the Garmin instead...

The flight model is good and shows the Rapide as it was, a lightly loaded biplane that was a pleasure to fly and gave its pilots few troubles other than the perennial problem of needing more power. You ain't going anywhere quickly in this machine - cruise was normally somewhere around 120-130 mph depending on economy considerations and with a light load it climbed at just over 850 fpm. The ceiling was theoretically 19500 feet, but most civilian Rapides never made it much above ten thousand, for obvious reasons. The sound set is, well, another Hambly classic. We don't see enough of Mike's files now, but he is definitely one of the greats.

The package has already attracted some excellent repaints, three of my favorites being illustrated below, but there are many more. There was something about this plane that attracted distinctive schemes and you could go a long way before you find anything more eye-catching than this trio.

Looking back, David Garwood first came to our attention in July 2003 with a de Havilland Dragon Rapide (DH89.ZIP) for FS2002. This had a couple of liveries and proved to be extremely popular, with over 7000 downloads once you count the updates and repaints that were subsequently issued (DRGRPBEA.ZIP being a good example).

Next off the blocks was a Grob 115E for FS2002 Pro, this being a sim of a Cambridge University Air Squadron plane - the download to go for is GROB115E.ZIP which includes new textures and flight dynamics.

One of Dave's most popular uploads has been a Wallis autogyro, depicting the plane so famously flown by James Bond in 'You Only Live Twice' (AUTOGYRO.ZIP and GYROAIR2.ZIP). This excellent little sim was updated with a new panel and flight dynamics by Kevin Bryan and Ian Standfast (GYROUPDT.ZIP). Remaining with FS2002, Dave released a 'bouncing bomb' Avro Lancaster BIII of the type used in the 'Dams raids' (LANC_DAM.ZIP) and a 'Grand Slam' bomb carrying version of the same plane (LANCSLAM.ZIP) more or less ended his involvement with FS2002.

Dave's first plane for FS2004 was an Avro Anson (ANSONMK1.ZIP) the 'Annie' being widely used for training and transport purposes in WWII and beyond, being chiefly remarkable for its greenhouse like cabin and the number of turns required of the large and stiff wheel used to raise its gear. The Anson was followed by the lush 'Huntpak' (HUNTPAK1.ZIP) depicting the prototype of the Hawker Hunter, possibly the most beautiful jet fighter to see service in the fifties; the team being extended to include another very well known simmer, Rick Piper, who will also be featured in this series. Huntpaks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 followed in short order, containing liveries for everything from camo service planes to dazzling aerobatic teams like the Blue Diamonds (remember them, anyone?). The release of a Hunter paintkit (HUNTKIT.ZIP) marked an absolute explosion of new liveries for this extremely popular simulation.

Watch video clips of the Dragon Rapide in the FlightSim.Com Cineplex

So, from the FlightSim.Com crew, our best wishes to the entire Rapide team - we really enjoy their addons and readers who have done the same might like to tell the team so by emailing them and voting for their files.