Davis DA-2
type of aircraft
The Davis DA-2 is a light aircraft designed in the United States in the 1960s and was marketed for homebuilding. While it is a low-wing monoplane of largely conventional design with fixed tricycle undercarriage, the DA-2 is given a distinctive appearance by its slab-like fuselage construction and its V-tail. The pilot and a single passenger sit side-by-side. Construction of the aircraft is sheet aluminum throughout, with the sole compound curves formed a fiberglass cowling and fairings.
The prototype made its first flight on May 21, 1966, and was exhibited at that year's Experimental Aircraft Association annual fly-in, where it won awards for "most outstanding design" and "most popular aircraft".
A major design consideration was ease of assembly for a first time home aircraft builder. Examples of this include: few curved components, a V-tail is one less control surface to build, and each wing is made from two sheets of aluminum with no trimming involved.
The DA-3 was a single DA-2 enlarged to accommodate four people. Work proceeded through 1973-74, but the aircraft was never completed.
Plans have been intermittently available over the years.
“Davis DA-2” enters the record as type of aircraft. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Davis, DA-2 and type can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Davis DA-2” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Davis, DA-2 and type provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5241880. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1966 and 1973.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Davis DA-2”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Davis DA-2 primary sources, Davis DA-2 archive and Davis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Davis DA-2”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Davis DA-2” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.