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).

[2] The design sought to combine the superior performance of a tractor biplane with the excellent forward visibility of a pusher type.

[citation needed] Test flights determined that it lacked sufficient directional control, which led to an enlarged fin and rudder being adopted.

[2] The prototype armament installation comprised a single forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun, which was either fixed to fire upward at an angle or possibly mounted so that its elevation could be adjusted in flight.

In the production installation the gun was given a more conventional fixed mounting on top of the cowl, offset to the left, to fire in the line of flight.

[4][5] The DH.5 may have been designed with the intention of attacking enemy planes from below, but its limited operational ceiling in comparison to contemporaries would have made this infeasible.

[7] By the time trials commenced in France, significantly more capable types such as the Sopwith Camel and the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 were not far behind.

[7] A total of four manufacturers were involved in producing the type: Airco (200), British Caudron (50), Darracq (200) and March, Jones & Cribb (100).

[9] The appearance of the aircraft was drastically changed via a revised fuselage, which now had an octagonal cross section and featured additional stringers around the area of the engine cowling.

While some DH.5s were built with the original rubber bungee return springs on the ailerons, later-built examples used pulleys and balance cables.

[5] The position of the upper wing resulted in an unfortunate blind spot above and to the rear which was the very direction from which a single-seater would generally be attacked.

[17] A number of retired aircraft were reused as trials machines, some of these tests included alternative gun mountings, jettisonable fuel tanks and plywood coverings.

[18] No original aircraft has survived but an airworthy full-scale reproduction, built in the United States by John Shiveley, is on display in the Aviation Heritage Centre, Omaka Aerodrome, New Zealand.