De Havilland BC DH.66 Hercules

The De Havilland BC DH.66 Hercules was a seven-passenger, three-engined airliner built by De Havilland British Columbia in 1929.

Design & development
To differentiate it from those built in the UK and Australia, the British Columbian-built aircraft were designated DH.66B Hercules. It was identical in every way to the DH.66 built by DHBC's parent company, De Havilland Aircraft of the United Kingdom, and those built in Australia by De Havilland Australia. The BC-built examples were all built with the enclosed cockpit.

British Columbia Air Lines (BC)
British Columbia Air Lines, the direct predecessor of Inter-Dominion Air Lines, operated four new-build DH.66Bs from 1932 until the airline was reformed into Inter-Dominion in 1936.

Imperial Airways (United Kingdom)
Imperial Airways acquired four DH.66Bs new from DHBC in 1929 for its operations in BC. They were transferred to successor British Columbia Air Lines after the Dominion government ruled that the laws on foreign ownership of railways applied to air transport as well, forcing Imperial Airways to spin its BC operations off into a BC-based subsidiary.

Aircraft registered in BC changed registration from G-BCxx to VB-xxx on 1 January 1930.

Inter-Dominion Air Lines (BC)
Inter-Dominion Air Lines, the direct successor of B.C. Air Lines, inherited four Hercules when it was created; they were all sold off in 1937.

Preserved

 * c/n C6/1929, as G-BCIC in Imperial Airways Livery at the BC Aviation Museum

Production
Only four were built in BC, all for the BC branch of Imperial Airways, which in 1931 were spun off into a BC-based subsidiary called British Columbia Air Lines, which was in turn renamed Inter-Dominion Air Lines in 1936. All four were sold to private buyers in 1937; the last had its airworthiness certificate revoked in 1976, and has been preserved at the British Columbia Aviation Museum as Imperial Airways G-BCIC.

Accidents & incidents

 * 23 October 1941: Privately owned DH.66 VB-SPB (c/n C7/1929) crashed in a storm attempting to land at Chilliwack; pilot and single passenger killed.


 * 16 May 1949: Privately owned DH.66 VB-PDV (c/n C4/1929) was damaged beyond repair in a runway excursion during the landing run-out in heavy rain.