Westland Wapiti Mk IIA

30 Squadron Westland Wapiti Mk.IIa flying over Mosul, Iraq, in 1932 - Notice the palm tree on the fin!

The Westland Wapiti was a British two-seat general-purpose military single-engined biplane of the 1920s. It was designed and built by Westland to replace the Airco DH.9A in Royal Air Force service.

First flying in 1927, the Wapiti entered service with the RAF in 1928, and remained in production until 1932, a total of 565 being built. It equipped twenty squadrons of the RAF, both overseas (with 30 Sqn in Iraq) and at home, remaining in RAF service until 1940. Also, the aircraft was used by the Air Forces of Australia, Canada, South Africa and India.

On 19 April 1929, 30 Sqn took delivery of the Wapiti MkIIA taking over from the DH9A. The Wapiti had better control laterally than the DH9A but was not much better in performance terms than the DH9A, but the Wapiti did carry W/T - a step forward!

The Wapiti is named after the wapiti, also known as elk, one of the largest species of the deer family and one of the largest land mammals in North America and eastern Asia.