De Havilland DH.91 Albatross

The de Havilland DH.91 Albatross was a four-engined British transport aircraft of the 1930s manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company, of which seven were built between 1938 and 1939. It was designed in 1936 by A. E. Hagg to Air Ministry specification 36/35 for a transatlantic mail plane, and was notable for the ply-balsa-ply sandwich construction of its fuselage, later used in the Mosquito, and for a cooling system for its air-cooled engines that allowed nearly ideal streamlining of the engine mounting. The first Albatross flew on 20 May 1937. A 22-passenger version was developed and five were delivered to Imperial Airways in 1938 and 1939; the two prototypes became long-range mail carriers. In summer 1939 the type was the main aircraft on the London Croydon to Paris Le Bourget route, and in the war the survivors flew from Bristol to Lisbon and Shannon.