SUMMARY
Inventor.
Industrialist. Test pilot. Aircraft designer. Knight. Sir Geoffrey
De Havilland was born 27 Jul 1882 in High Wycombe, England
to Charles De Havilland and "Nettie" Saunders. He
began
his carrer by designing steam cars and motorcycles and started
work on his first plane in 1908.
First De Havilland aircraft to fly
(and crash) ca 1908 by Geoffrey De Havilland
He crashed it, but he continued
designing
new planes, and finally founded De Havilland Aircraft Company
at Stag Lane near London in 1920. This would someday be
absorbed into the Hawker Siddeley conglomerate. Among the most
famous De Havilland planes were the Mosquito, an all-wood WWII
fighter-bomber that was
among the fastest of its kind, and the Vampire, his first jet-powered
fighter. He also designed the Moth biplane, and the Comet,
which was the first commercial jet-driven airliner
in service.
He was knighted in 1944. 
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