The British Aircraft Eagle was a low-wing wooden monoplane with an enclosed cabin for the pilot and two passengers and a retractable undercarriage.

It was almost entirely composed of wood; one prominent exception was the limited use of steel tubing in the structure of the forward portion of the fuselage, which permitted the doors to be both shaped and positioned continently.

Conventional flight controls were present; a lever in the floor between rudder pedals was used to apply the brakes, differential application of which could be used to steer the aircraft.

The roof also featured several glazed lights that permitted a good visibility towards the rear of the aircraft; opaque sections were present to provide shade.

[2] The nose of the aircraft was intentionally shaped to facilitate a favourable frontal field of view from both the front and back seats.

There was a single lever on either side of the aircraft, which was normally locked in position by a covering flap, that withdraws the bolts in both upper and lower fittings.

[4] From an aerodynamic perspective, considerable attention was directed towards the minimisation of drag by having the smallest number of external excrescences and by the careful positioning of various components to avoid interference; this purpose was behind both the arrangement and form of the fillets between the wings and fuselage.

[6] The deployed undercarriage was relatively clean in comparison to its competitors; its retraction increased the aircraft's speed by roughly 18 MPH.

[6] It was typically powered by a single de Havilland Gipsy Major four-cylinder piston engine, capable of producing up to 130 hp.

[1] At the outbreak of the Second World War, seven Eagles were pressed into Royal Air Force (RAF) service in the UK, with two in Australia and one in Kenya.

Data from British civil aircraft, 1919-1972 Volume I,[1] National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics[13]General characteristics Performance