Van Nuys Collection#1..."The Dove"

When I first saw this plane I was intrigued because I had never seen any design like this in my life, but I could tell from the engine nacelles that it definitely was a British design. The fuselage and cockpit were slightly reminiscent of a smaller Vickers Viscount, which was a four engined airliner for BOAC. I had made a model of it when I was a kid, but the nose gear had me puzzled. That was then, but today, with the help of the internet, I searched all airliners in British history and eventually up popped the deHavilland DH-104 "Dove", which was a light transport aircraft, seating up to 11-passengers with the original variant powered by two 340-hp engines giving the plane a max speed of 200 mph. Which of the eight variants I drew with a razor point Sharpie and gray markers, I have no clue since 542 of these planes were built since 1945 and flew in many different roles for many different countries till 1985.

Remembering what it looked like when I sketched it and seeing the plane in its original airline colors and numerous company designs is kinda sad. The plane definitely had interesting lines with a slick canopy design that is today a bit similar to our NASA shuttles. Cool!