The DH-4, designed in Britain but built in America, was first flown in 1916 and was soon regarded as one of the best WWI single engine bombers.  During the war, the DH-4 was used in a variety of roles. Pilots flew these planes for day bombing, observation, and artillery spotting.

Following WWI, DH-4s continued in use with the Army for over a decade. The U.S. Army Air Service used the plane as a transport, air ambulance, photographic plane, trainer, target tug, and forest fire patrol. More than 1,500 were rebuilt as DH-4Ms (with the M standing for Modernized) of a welded metal fuselage were completed by Boeing and Atlantic-Fokker Aircraft.  Some of these M-models were modified with or carrying airmail by the US Post Office.  

The Crawford Museum's Boeing-built DH-4M was formerly used as an airmail plane. It was the only DH-4 built especially for non-military duty.  Declared surplus by the Postal Service in 1927, it was then used by the Department of Agriculture, studying flying insect migration at high altitudes.  It was then bought by a private pilot in 1931, and bought and sold to several private pilots over the next few years.  In 1944 it was flown to Detroit for a war-bond drive, and at the time, the owner sold the plane to the Thompson Products Auto Album, predecessor to the Crawford Museum.

Loaned to the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton in 1965, the plane underwent a complete restoration in 1982, and repainted to appear as a DH-4 used as a personal aircraft by the Commanding General of the US Air Service in 1923.  The aircraft returned to the Crawford Museum in 2001 and is currently stored at the museum¹s Preservation Facility in Macedonia, Ohio.

Click on a link to the right to learn more about our aviation collection!