De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide

The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide was a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner, carrying six to eight passengers, that the British company de Havilland developed as a faster and more comfortable successor to the DH.84 Dragon. It was in effect a twin-engined, scaled-down version of the four-engined DH.86 Express, sharing its tapered wings, streamlined fairings and Gipsy Six engines, and it was first marketed as the Dragon Six before the name Dragon Rapide, and later simply Rapide, took hold. The prototype flew at Hatfield on 17 April 1934, and series production was in full swing by November of that year, with 205 built for airlines and private owners before the war. In wartime service with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy it was called the Dominie, used for radio and navigation training, transport and communications, and the de Havilland Dove replaced it after the war.