Boeing Model 200 Monomail - USA
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The Monomail had a low cantilever wing that provided room for a relatively short lightweight retractable landing gear. The low wing seems quite logical now but some of the early designers had a false notion that high wings were more stable laterally. This belief was based on an erroneous idea of "pendulum stability." The Monomail was so aerodynamically clean that the engine would over-rev in level flight at full throttle because the propeller was adjusted on the ground to a low pitch to provide high enough rpm for takeoff. Achieving the highest possible cruising speed would have required a controllable propeller, which was not yet available. Only two Monomails were built, since the single-engine mail-plus-passenger plane was giving way to multiengine designs. In 1934 the Department of Commerce made multiengine configurations a requirement for passenger transports.
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