War Eagles Air Museum, Santa Teresa, New Mexico
The Tiger Moth entered service in 1931. By the start of the
Second World War more than 1,000 were in service as trainers.
They were decommissioned from the British Royal Air Force
Training Command in 1947. The canvas over the rear cockpit
is a blind flying hood, used in instrument training.
From museum signage: “De Haviland’s famous D.H.82 Tiger Moth traces a direct line of descent from the equally famous De Havilland D.H.60 Moth of 1925 - the latter being regarded as the type which made possible worldwide development of the flying-club movement. The prototype D.H.82 Tiger Moth flew for the first time on 26 October 1931 and quickly aroused the interest of the RAF - the first for that service being delivered in 1932. By the outbreak of war in September 1939 more than 1,000 were in service with elementary and reserve flying training schools. The majority of the RAF’s wartime pilots received their elementary training on these aircraft and by the end of the war well over 4,200 had been delivered. In addition almost 3,000 examples were built by manufactures in Australia, Canada and New Zealand for use in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan; and were used also in South Africa, India and Rhodesia. Last Biplane trainer in RAF service, the Tiger moth remained with Flying Training Command until 1947 and with the RAFVR until 1951. One military variant was the radio-controlled Queen Bee, used in both landplane and floatplane configurations to provide live target practice for anti-aircraft gunners. True Tiger Moths were of composite wood and metal construction, but the 380 Queen Bees supplied to the RAF were all-wood with fabric covering. Post war ex-service Tigers began to come on the civilian market and were quickly snapped up by enthusiasts and flying clubs: The supply failing miserably to meet the demand until 1947 when large numbers of Ex-RAF machines became available. Even then these superb little aircraft - regarded worldwide as among the most famous trainers in aviation history - were to remain in short supply, for the early post-war years very few lightplanes were available. Many Tiger Moths were used (especially in Australia and New Zealand) to pioneer the technique of top-dressing and, and later of crop spraying, leading to the current worldwide mass-production of purpose-built agricultural aircraft.
