Airspeed Consul

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Airspeed Consul was a British light twin-engined airliner of the immediate post-war period.

1 History
2 Specifications
3 Performance
4 See also

[edit] History

The civil AS.6 Airspeed Envoy eight seat airliner of 1934 was militarised in 1937 to create the mass produced AS.10 Airspeed Oxford trainer, 8,751 of which were produced for the RAF, RNZAF, RCAF, RAAF and SAAF under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

War surplus Oxfords were superficially attractive as a small twin engined airliner, and Airspeed soon offered a conversion kit. From 1946, 162 Oxfords were refurbished after the war for civilian use as Consuls. The type saw service with feeder-liners in Great Britain, and also Belgium, Iceland, Malta, East Africa and Canada, and was the first type operated by present giants Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines, (then Malayan Airways). However their wooden construction, heavy wartime use, somewhat tricky handling and small capacity told against them. Many of the 'civil' conversions were bought by military users; the Consul served as a VIP transport with the air-forces of Britain, Canada and New Zealand, all of whom already operated Oxfords. In 1949 the Israeli air-force purchased a number of civil Consuls and re-converted them to military trainers where they served with 141 squadron until 1957, a year after the Oxford was retired by the RAF.

While many Oxfords survive, the Consul has not been so fortunate. G-AIKR, a former children's playground attraction is owned by the Canada Aviation Museum; it is on loan to the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum, where it is being returned to Oxford status. As of 2003 another Consul was known to exist in Singapore, in pieces.