Princess Xenia was a Fokker F.VIIa aircraft, built in 1925 for the Dutch airline KLM and initially used for regular journeys between Amsterdam and London via Rotterdam.

The aircraft was later sold to the consortium 'Air Communications Ltd' and given the name of The Spider by Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, who on 2 August 1929, with Captain C. D. Barnard, departed on a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to Karachi (then in British India) and returned to Croydon Airport, England, in less than eight days.

[1][3] Together with Irish Air Corps Commandant James Fitzmaurice, McIntosh made a failed attempt to cross the Atlantic from Baldonnel Aerodrome near Dublin on 16 September 1927.

They began the journey from Upavon Aerodrome, Wiltshire with the aim of breaking the Clarence Chamberlin and Charles A. Levine world record long-distance flight.

[11][12][13][14] In 1930 the aircraft, with the Duchess, Barnard and Mr. Little, made a record journey from London to Cape Town and back, covering 18,800 miles and taking a total of 20 days.