Saturday, 22 August 2020

Airspeed AS.65 Consul, more European users

The Airspeed AS.65 Consul was a British twin-engined light airliner that saw service with many airlines around the world. It was basically a civilian conversion from the AS.10 Oxford trainer. On this post we're covering the next countries and airlines:

  • France: We've already wrote about the Consul in service with various French colonial airlines, specially in Indochina and Algeria. But it's worth pointing that there was a French airline, Airnautic, which operated from mainland France, that had three Consul in service. They were acquired in as late as 1957 and served until the early 1960s. One of them was used for survey works in French West Africa. By 1963 all three of them had been written off and sold for scrap. Oddly one of them, registered as F-BHVY wasn't scrapped until 1975.
    As we couldn't find graphical evidence of a Consul operating with this airline, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
  • Iceland: One aircraft was registered by Flugfedir, Iceland's national airline in 1951. This aircraft was intended to cover the air route between Reykjavik-Glasgow and Liverpool but it crashed near Sheffield in April that same year killing its pilot, Magnusson and two crew members. As we couldn't find photos or pictures about this aircraft, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
  • Ireland: Irish Government bought two Consuls in 1947 to be assigned one year later to Irish National Airway, Aer Lingus. One of them covered the regular route between Dublin and Liverpool until 1953 while the other one was sold to Pakistan one year later after being put into service with Aer Lingus, in 1949.
  • Italy: One Italian airline, Trasporti Aerei Mediterranei (Mediterranean Air Transports) operated three Consuls between 1955 and 1963. There were other two Consuls which served with Italian owners. One of them served with the charter airline Aerofotografica SA from 1963 until 1964 when it crashed, and another one was bought in 1953 by a private owner but was sold shortly later, in 1954, to a British owner. As it doesn't seem to exist graphical evidence of a Consul in Trasporti Aerei Mediterranei's colours, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
  • Monaco: A single Consul was registered as MC-ABA by Monte Carlo Airways in October 1946, but it wasn't delivered. As another aircraft on this post, the drawing is speculative. 
  • Crown Colony of Malta: Two Maltese airlines, Chartair and Air Malta operated a total of six Consuls. They were operated from 1946 until the early 1950s.









Sources:
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Consul
2.https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_oxford_&_consul.pdf

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