De Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth

The de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth was a British three-seat, high-wing cabin monoplane designed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company between 1929 and 1933, and one of the highest-performing private aircraft of its time, flying at close to 124 mph. The unnamed DH.80 prototype first flew in September 1929, a streamlined all-wooden aircraft built for the growing private flying movement in Britain and fitted with the new Gipsy III inverted inline engine that gave an unobstructed view over the nose. It was then redesigned with a fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and renamed the DH.80A, and the first production aircraft flew in March 1930. Orders came quickly: 259 were built in England in three years of production that ended in March 1933, and de Havilland Canada built another 25. Puss Moths were used for several record-breaking long-distance flights in the early 1930s.