Airspeed AS.65 Consul, part four, Middle-East Users

The Airspeed AS.65 Consul was a British twin-engined light airliner of the immediate post-war era. It was an airliner conversion of the previous AS.10 Oxford. With 162 machines converted, it saw use all around the world. In this post, we're taking a look at two middle-east countries that employed it:

• Israel: Back in October 1949, the Israel Air Force (IAF) founded the 141 Squadron, which served as the multi-engined flying school. This squadron was based at Tel-Nof air base, close to the city of Ekron. As its purpose was to train air crews in flying, navigation, radio operation, instrument flying and aerial gunnery, they were equipped with both Avro Ansons and Airspeed Consuls which were acquired from their former British operators, which supplied transport aircraft for the United Nations commission back in early 1949. The primary goal of the Consuls was to train pilots for manning both transports and fighter-bombers like the Douglas Dakota or De Havilland Mosquito. One year later, in 1950 the flying moved to Sirkin air base and the Consuls continued to operate from there. As they had seats for six passengers, they also took the role of VIP transports. In fact, it was the aircraft that took David Ben Gurion on a tour through Southern Israel in June 1949.
  The aircraft's poor mechanical status, the poor quality of of IAF's maintenance and the hard handling characteristics of the aircraft, caused the aircraft to be progressively taken out of service. In fact, of the initial eleven of them (some sources claim it was 14), by April 1957 only three of them remained serviceable.
  Israel's national airway, El-Al, operated one Consul as ground crew and pilot instructor. This machine was based in Lydda, and operated from July 1953 until 1957.
• Jordan: Two Jordan airlines, Air Jordan and Arab Airways Association, operated a total of eight aircraft. Air Jordan operated seven of them from Amman in small domestic flights from 1950 to 1951, and Arab Airways Association operated just one in 1951. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Consul

2. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/airspeed-a-s-65-consul

3. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/aa-mideast/israel/af/types/train1.htm

4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/9679871@N04/1392750765

5. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_oxford_&_consul.pdf