De Havilland DH.88 Comet

The de Havilland DH.88 Comet was a British two-seat, twin-engined racing monoplane that the de Havilland Aircraft Company built specifically for the 1934 England to Australia MacRobertson Air Race. It was the first British aircraft to combine, in one airframe, stressed-skin construction, a cantilever monoplane wing, retractable undercarriage, landing flaps, variable-pitch propellers and an enclosed cockpit. Three were produced for the race for private owners at a discounted price of five thousand pounds each, and the prototype first flew only six weeks before the start. The aircraft named Grosvenor House won the race, and the Comets went on to set many records and to take part in later long-distance attempts. Two more were built afterwards, the last of them G-ADEF, named Boomerang, for an attempt on the London to Cape Town record.