The de Havilland DH.88 Comet was a twin-engined British aircraft designed for the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race. Three examples took part in the race and one of them won it.
The MacRobertson International Air Race, a race between London and Melbourne to be held in October 1934 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the State of Victoria, was announced in 1933.[2][3][4] Despite previous British air racing successes, culminating in 1931 in the outright winning of the Schneider Trophy, there was no British aeroplane capable of putting up a challenge over the MacRobertson course with its long overland stages. In January 1934, the de Havilland company stepped into the breach when it offered to design a 200 mph (322 km/h) aircraft to compete in the race and produce a limited run if three were ordered by February 1934.
Three orders were indeed received, and de Havilland set to work. The airframe consisted of a wooden skeleton clad with spruce plywood, with a final fabric covering on the wings. A long streamlined nose held the main fuel tanks, with the low-set and fully glazed central two-seat cockpit faired into an unbroken line to the tail. The wings were of a thin cantilever monoplane design for high-speed flight, and as such would require stressed-skin construction to achieve sufficient strength. While other designers were turning to metal to provide this extra strength, de Havilland took the unusual approach of increasing the strength of all-wood construction. De Havilland achieved the skin profile using many thin, shaped pieces set side by side, and then overlaid in the manner of plywood. This was made possible only by the recent development of high-strength synthetic bonding resins and its success took many in the industry by surprise.
Pretty aircraft.
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