The Envoy was designed by A.H. Tiltman as a twin-engine development of the earlier Courier. It used the same wooden construction outer wing panels and innovative retracting main undercarriage.
It was a twin-engined low-wing cabin monoplane entirely made out of wood with fabric-covered control surfaces. It had a rearwards retracting main undercarriage with a fixed tailwheel. It was built in three series. The series I was the initial production variant which didn't have trailing-edge flaps, with just 17 of them being manufactured. The series II featured split-flaps and just 13 of them were built. The series III was similar to series II but with detailed minor improvements and 19 of them were built. Each series was sold with a different engine choice, including the Wolseley Aries, Armstrong-Siddeley Cheetah V or Armstrong-Siddeley Lynx IVC, radial engines. Those engines were housed in a variety of cowlings, mostly short-chord Townend rings, but also wider chord cowlings with or without blisters for cylinder heads.
The prototype, registered as G-ACMT, flew for the first time on 26th June 1934 and was shown to the public at the exhibition made by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC) at Hendon aerodrome, in London on month later, in July. Small-production scale was set-up at Airspeed's factory in Portsmouth.
It was manufactured in many variants, with the most produced ones being AS.6J Envoy III which was powered by two 345 hp Armstrong-Siddeley Cheetah IX (27 exemplars made), and AS.6E Envoy III which was powered by two 340 hp Walter Castor engines (just 5 exemplars made).
It was used by many countries:
- United Kingdom: The first production Envoy I, registered as G-ACVH, flew in October 1934 and was used as a company demonstrator. The second, belonging to the Series I, but powered by two Wolseley Aries III engines, was delivered to Lord Nuffield, in order to take part in the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Australia in 1934. However, the aircraft was damaged and it was withdrawn from the race, to be replaced by the Airspeed AS.8 Viceroy (which we made a post some days ago, check it out). One Envoy participated in the Schlesinger Air Race, from Portsmouth to Johannesburg, in South Africa, but it crashed killing the crew of two.
At least three Envoy III were taken on charge by the Royal Air Force to serve with the No.24 Squadron. The military Envoys were used for VIP Transport duties from as early as 1937 (when the first one was officially acquired by the RAF) until 1942 when all of them were either damaged or destroyed). - Germany: The German Luftwaffe had at least 3 Envoys. Two of them being ex-Czechoslovak, which were given to Finland in March 1942, and a captured one which was used at Fluglehrer-schule Brandenburg-Briest, a flying school. The fate of this machine is unknown but, most likely, it was destroyed during the course of the war.
- Japan: Two Envoys I were sent to Japan in 1935, one for evaluation by the Japan Air Transport Co. (NKY-KK) and one for the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS), labelled as Airspeed LXM. Three months later they ordered four more Envoys and a production license was also acquired.
Production started at Mitsubishi's factory, in Nagoya, Japan, as Mitsubishi Hinazaru-type Passenger Transport. It was initially powered by the Gasuden Jimpu radial engine, but later they were replaced by either the Armstrong-Siddeley Lynx or the Wolseley Aries III engines. Mitsubishi built eleven machines in total and they had landing flaps which weren't fitted to any other Airspeed-built Envoys. When the Jimpu-powered aircraft was tested, it all finished with a crash, killing the flight-test observer, being that the first fatality during flight testing of a Mitsubishi Aircraft. The crash was blamed upon the engines, which produced excessive drag, so a decision to switch to British engines was taken. As we said, eleven aircraft were made and all of them served with the NKY-KK, which later became Greater Japan Airways.
Apparently at least one was given to Manchukuo Imperial Air Force. - Manchukuo: It seems that an unknown number of Mitsubishi-built Envoys were passed on to Manchukuo National Airways, which was the paramilitary organization that acted as Manchukuo's airline. As we couldn't find graphical evidence of the Envoy serving in Manchukuo's colours, the drawing should be considered as speculative. The fate of these machines is unknown, but they were most probably, destroyed during the War.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Envoy
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchuria_Aviation_Company
3. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/114456/Airspeed-AS-6J-Envoy
4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/114447/Airspeed-AS-6E-Envoy
5. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_prewar.pdf
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._24_Squadron_RAF
No comments:
Post a Comment