Bellanca 28-70

The Bellanca 28-70 was a one-off long-range air racer that the Bellanca company built in 1934 for the Irish pioneer aviator James Fitzmaurice, who named it Irish Swoop. Fitzmaurice commissioned it for the MacRobertson Race from England to Australia and signed the agreement in May 1934. It was a low-wing monoplane with a wooden frame covered in fabric, a tandem cockpit under a long canopy, retractable main landing gear and a 700 horsepower Pratt and Whitney Wasp Junior engine, and it first flew on 1 September 1934. Because it carried more fuel than its certification allowed it was withdrawn from the race, and a London to Baghdad record attempt ended over Belgium. After a landing accident in 1935 it was rebuilt in 1936 with a 900 horsepower Twin Wasp as the 28-90, which Jim Mollison used for a transatlantic speed record and which led to the 28-90 Flash bomber.