The DH.9a was a successful light day bomber which first entered service with 110 Squadron in June 1918. Its 'Ninak' nickname came from the then phonetic alphabet; at the time, 'Ack' was used for the letter A, and thus the '.9a' portion of the aircraft'sdesignation morphed into Ninak in military-speak. The type was borne out of the necessity to find a replacement for the under-performing DH.9, which in turn was already a replacement for the DH.4. By the Armistice, 110 Squadron alone had dropped 10 tons of bombs on German targets with only slight losses. An Anglo-American collaboration, the DH.9a married a British airframe with an American-built Liberty engine. Its V12 water-cooled power plant was rated at 400hp, which produced a top speed of 114mph (183km/h) at 10,000ft (3,048m). A 450lb (204kg) bomb load was carried externally and other armament consisted of a single .303in Vickers gun, synchronised to fire through the propeller arc, and a scarf-mounted single or twin Lewis gun for the rear gunner.
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