G-EAJO  Airco D.H.10                                    (c/n  E5488)

                                  

                                       This is a de Havilland Aircraft photograph.  Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer at the
                                       Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco) during WW I.   A large number of his D.H.10 design
                                       were used by the RFC (later the RAF), although (unlike the D.H.9) very few found their way onto
                                       the civil register.  In fact, this may have been the only one.  Its c/n is given as E5488 although this
                                       was its military serial and may have been the only identfying number.   In 1918, with the end of the
                                       "War to End All Wars" Airco found itself on the verge of bankruptcy and de Havilland bought the
                                       company out and started his own de Havilland Aircraft Company, based at Stag Lane in Edgware
                                       (actually Burnt Oak), on the outskirts of north London.  The company moved to Hatfield, Hertford-
                                       shire in 1934.