Airco DH.5

Airco DH.5
Role	fighter Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco)
Designer	Geoffrey de Havilland
First flight	August 1916
Introduction	May 1917
Primary user	Royal Flying Corps (RFC)
Number built	550[1]

The Airco DH.5 was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft. It was designed and manufactured at British aviation company Airco. Development was led by aircraft designer Geoffrey de Havilland as a replacement for the obsolete Airco DH.2.

The DH.5 was one of the first British fighters designed with the improved Constantinesco gun synchronizer, which allowed a forward-firing machine gun to fire through the propeller faster and more reliably than the older mechanical systems. It was also one of the earliest biplanes with a marked "back-stagger" of its wings. By the time the DH.5 was fielded, it was already inferior to other fighters in service and thus both unpopular and unsatisfactory with the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The type was quickly withdrawn from service once supplies of the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 permitted.