The much maligned DH5 began as an attempt by Geoffrey DeHavilland to capture the forward visibility for the pilot of a pusher aircraft such as the DH5 with the speed of the tractor aircraft such as the Sopwith Pup. The result was the very stable tractor engined Airco DH5 with it's back staggered wings, giving excellent forward visibility but virtually no rearward visibility. The RFC pilot, Major M.H.B. Nethersole wrote, "it was found impossible to get a view of a Sopwith Scout, once one let the machine get one ones tail." (1)

Despite coming on to service eight months after the Sopwith Pup and with a more powerful engine, the DH5 was out performed by the Sopwith Scout. Speed was to be a problem with the frontline AFC and RFC squadron which used the type. The pilots of 2 Sqn AFC reporting that German two seater aircraft would escape their guns by diving away and the DH5 would be unable to keep up or catch them in a straight line chase.

The DH5 had also earnt an undeserved reputation for stalling savagely at 80 mph or loasing elevator control at 50 mph. Major Nethersole when he first flew the aircraft was warned not try and fly the plane at less than 90 mph. He found however, "I found it a most comfortable and pleasant machine to fly, extremely sensitive to aeleron control ....The machine is extremely simple to fly, easy on landing .... quick on turns but is so stable that it has been found impossible so far to get the machine out of control, eg in a spin .... It loops easily and well."(1)

Captain Andrew Lang, former instructor at the NSW School of aviation, Commander of 4 Sqn AFC and experimental pilot in England, wrote of the DH5, "De Havilland designed a machine fitted with a 110 Hp Le Rhone, with the pilot perched just behind it and under the leading edge of the top plane, which had considerable back stagger. With a disposable load of 260 lbs the DH5 had a speed of about 102 mph at 10 000 ft, but a fairly high landing speed of about 55 mph." (2)

The early DH5 aircraft were discovered to have extremely bad vibration problems, to the point that the instruments in the cockpit refused to work and the joystick was difficult to maintain in a constant position. It was though that the vibration was a culmination of badly balanced engines and the stiff main bearer plate that the DH5 carried. Though the squadrons in France reported that the DH5's they flew vibrated no worse than the Sopwith Camel. Finally 32 Sqn RFC in France experimented with stiffening rods from the fuselage to the engine bearers which reduced some of the vibration but not all. Other engine cowls were stiffened with six chordwise stiffeners.

The "Men and Machines of the Australian Flying Corps" contains the passage, "One of it's [the DH5] less endearing features was the fact that it's rotary engine shed a valve tappet rod ( a quite common occurance, which was eventually overcome by the fitting of a simple clamp ), this rod would cut through the thin engine cowling like a demented tin-opener before coming up against the relatively immovable mass of the of the Vickers Gun, which projected out forward above the engine. This solid resistance was sometimes enough to wrench the motor right out of it's mountings, with disastrous results for the poor pilot."

Interestingly Lang writes the original design spec for the DH5 was for a need for "trench strafing", this doesnt seem to bear out though, the DH5 Datafile writes, "he [deHavilland] tried to combine the aerodynamic advantages of the tractor layout with the forward field of view of the pusher." Interestingly Richard Howard in a letter home mentions that due to the work of 2 Squadron AFC in the Battle of Cambrai the DH5 was to be standardised for low flying work.

"During this series of operations our squadron made quite a name for itself. It even made a name for the type of machine it was flying, which hiherto had been considered as rather a 'washout'. This machine is now to be standardised for low flying work. " The price for this name was heavy though, low flying strafing and support work is dangerous and 2 Squadron AFC took 35% casualties in a small period of time.

The DH5 was used by 2 Sqn AFC, 24 Sqn, 32 Sqn, 41 Sqn, and 64 Sqn RFC operationally in France, and later in training squadrons throughout England. The squadrons all played strong roles in the Army attack and support role, strafing, bombing and disrupting enemy troops and supply movements. The DH5 had a dramatic drop off in performance above 10000 ft so the low level flying was well within it's optimum performance range. By mid December the DH5 squadrons were starting to re-equip with SE5a aircraft.