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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0347.PDF
23 February 1951 221 diverted to British Airways. It was specially equipped for blindapproach and D/F. experimental work from me enlarged air- field at Heston. The latest radio was installed, and provisionwas made for the use of an observation dome in place of the gun turret. At the end of 1938 the chairman was able to report a profiton the year's trading. He referred to factory extensions to allow the fulfilment of increased Government orders and reported thatOxford deliveries were ahead of contract schedule. Symptomatic of the company's developing stature was the attendance of 500employees at the annual dinner in 1939. One speaker referred to a remark by Sir Kingsley Wood, the Air Minister, that thefirm " had never let the Air Ministry down." In June, 1940, formal announcement was made that the deHavilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., had completed negotiations for the purchase from Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., ofthat firm's holding of Airspeed ordinary shares. Airspeed, how- ever, retained its identity as a separate company—as, indeed, itstill does, though now a wholly-owned subsidiary of The de Havilland Aircraft Company. The war years were, of course, complicated by a number ofevents—not excluding the air raids on Portsmouth and the completion of the shadow factory at Christchurch, which wasmanaged by Airspeed and is now not only the home of the Ambassador, but the design and business centre of the company,though Portsmouth still remains the head office. In gprnralj it can be said that the Portsmouth factory continued to be themain centre during the war, with the production drawing-office continuing its work there; but the project design team made anumber of moves which culminated, in 1944, in the final coloniz- ing of Christchurch, where, gradually, a new team settled downafter their peregrinations. There, in 1945, the first mock-up of the Ambassador was built and the prototype, aircraft beganto take shape. War-time Prototypes At the start of the war, work had been proceeding on thedesign of the AS-45, a Mercury Vlll-cngined trainer intended to displace, if deliveries slowed down, the Harvard. Two ofthese aircraft were eventually made and flown. During the same period, too, the first of two AS-39 Fleet Shadower aircraft, withfour Pobjoy Niagara engines, had been completed. This aircraft, though interesting as a means of providing the maximum ofendurance with the minimum in the way of controllable speed, was the result of a Naval requirement which duly fell by thewayside as war experience was gained and its value doubted. War experience, too, was responsible for the decision to movethe design team in 1941 from Portsmouth to Hatfield, where, with the D.H. Technical School as a drawing office, design startedon the AS-48 Sabre-engined night fighter. This project was dropped in favour of twin-engined aircraft such as the Mosquito.Another aircraft on which the Airspeed team worked was the AS-49 single-seat fighter-trainer with a Gipsy Six engine. Oneof the relatively few technically destructive enemy raids on this country—a hit-and-run affair by a Ju88 on Hatfield—wound upthis project. All the design calculations were burned and the mock-up was destroyed on that day in October, 1940. Towards the end of that year, however, work was started onthe design of a troop-carrying glider and this, the AS-51 Horsa, was destined to be one of the most successful aircraft of diewar era. The specification reached the Airspeed team—then installed in Salisbury Hall, Hatfield—in December, 1940, andthe prototype was flown from Fairey's Heathrow airfield (now extended into London Airport) nine months later. The designwas " productionized " by the drawing office at Portsmouth and the work of construction was divided amongst firms throughoutthe country, the aircraft sections being assembled at Maintenance Units. The story of the Horsa and of its quantity production,however, interestingly vital though the work was, can hardly find a place in this outline history of Airspeed. The nucleus of the design team returned to Portsmouth in theearly part of 1942, where they worked on the powered version of the Horsa, which was to be fined with two Cheetahs, and on theAS-55, a four-Hercules XTV-cngined commercial freighter pro- ject. Meanwhile, Mr. A. E. Hagg, previously chief designer for deHavillands (where he was responsible for, among many other famous DM. aircraft, die Albatross airliner) and, later, designer incharge of the installation department of Napiers, had been con- centrating his energies on air-sea rescue and 1LA-F. tender design.He first came into the Airspeed picture in 1942 when, working with two members of the Airspeed design team, be started, at theinvitation of the M.A.P., on the AS-56 Sabre-engined fighter. The principal novelty in this design was the adoption of the fan-cooled annular radiator. As an Airspeed project, this aircraft was dropped, but Napiers continued with the development ofthe radiator. However, following the recommendations of the Brabazon Committee, Airspeed were asked to design a Dakota replace- Mr. A. E. Hagg, Ambassador designer, appraises an early scale-model. ment—the Brabazon Type II—which, while intended eventuallyfor post-war civil use, was justified, too, as a prospective military transport. Mr. Hagg was asked to take charge of the designand the nucleus was built up at Fairmile Manor, Cobham, Surrey, before eventually emigrating to its final home at Christ-church, Hampshire—where, at mat time, there was no drawing- office accommodation. The initial designs for the AS-57 Ambassador envisaged theuse of a pair of Hercules engines and an all-up weight of the order of 35,000 1b, but investigations soon showed that thisparticular formula would not be able to better the performance of the Albatross of 1938 when carrying all the equipment andwith the features likely to be demanded in all post-war aircraft. Still determined to retain the advantages of the twin-enginedarrangement, the designers looked for a more powerful engine of the same general design and decided on the Centaurus, whichwas then in its production infancy. As the work proceeded it became obvious that the Centaurus-engined Ambassador wouldbe able to offer something quite exceptional in die way of a payload/range performance, widi a high cruising speed for asmall power-output and an attractive reserve to deal with engine failure. Mr. Hagg, as technical director and chief designer ofthe firm, insisted on the need for an exceptionally clean design and the result was the original 45,000 lb aircraft with an8,000 lb payload. Later, work on die AS-60 Ayrshire—a mili- tarized version—caused the structure-strengdi to be stepped upand, coupled with the expectation of greater take-off power from die Centaurus, permitted weights of die order of 52,000 1b to beconsidered. In this initially developed form the Ambassador was eventually ordered by British European Airways and productionwas started early in 1948 at the Christchurch factory, while detail fabrication of die sections odier than die fuselage wasplanned and got under way at die firm's Portsmouth works. There were tp be further design developments and 1951 wasagreed as the target year for first deliveries. From 1941 onwards the Christchurch shadow factory had beenconcentrating on die production of Oxfords, Horsas and, later, of Mosquitoes. The great majority of the Oxfords were, of course,made at Portsmouth and at die various outside contractors' factories, but Christchurch made a good start with some 550Oxfords before turning to Horsas. These aircraft, as already explained, were made in sections throughout die country anddie Christchurch factory was the only civil centre where com- plete machines were made. Some 700 Horsa Is and Us weremade or assembled before the works turned to Mosquito 6 At Farnborough in 1948 the Ambassador took off, demonstrated, and landed without starting the port Centaurus. Mr. Errington was the pilot.
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