Airspeed Envoy, part four

The Airspeed Envoy was a British light, twin-engined transport aircraft designed and built by Airspeed Ltd.
It was used during the Spanish Civil War by both sides as ten of them were acquired by the Republicans.
The first one, arrived to Barcelona in early August 1936 and was later used in the front of Aragon as a bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Two more arrived later in August but one was destroyed and the other one, piloted by Fernando Rein Loring (a famous pilot in Spain back then) defected to the nationalists becoming the personal aircraft of General Emilio Mola (one of the four main Generals in the nationalist side). It crashed later by flying into a mountain in June 1937 killing all its crew and passengers. Oddly enough, this aircraft had been the demonstrator for Airspeed.
In total, some sources claim that the total amount of Envoys that took part in the Spanish Civil War, was sixteen. However, that number seems too high.
Most of them (at least seven machines) were imported into Spain via the Air Pyrénneés. This airline was founded by the autonomous Basque Government in November 1936 which, after the occupation in September of the province of Gipuzkoa by the nationalist forces, the border with France was cut, so, in order to keep a link from Bilbao (the city headquarter of the Basque Republican forces in the north) with France, and considering that any communication was only possible via sea or by air, Air Pyréneés was founded and officially started operations in February 1937 covering the air-route Bilbao-Bayonne. One Envoy, registered as F-APPQ was shot down by nationalist aircraft over the Basque Country on 26th May 1937 injuring its pilot, Auguste Amestoy.
Once the Basque province of Biscay fell into the nationalists, most of the aircraft of the airline flew into Republican controlled territory like Valencia and with the French Air Ministry official protest (the airline's main office was in Bayonne, France), the company was dissolved in May 1938. All of their machines were pressed into service with LAPE (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas - Spanish Postal Airlines) and, like every other Envoy, were mainly used for VIP transport duties.
The machine registered as EC-AGE and another unidentified one survived the war and were taken over by the Spanish Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force), where they were re-registered with the code of "41-3" and "41-4" in late 1939. In 1945 they were re-coded as "L.11" and flew with the Spanish Air Force until well into 1947.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Envoy
2. https://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=14768 (translated)
3. http://britishaviation-ptp.com/airspeed_as6.html
4. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_prewar.pdf
5. https://aeropinakes.com/wordpress/1937/08/17/la-aerolinea-de-la-republica-de-euzkadi/ (translated)
6. https://ianasagasti.blogs.com/mi_blog/2019/11/air-pyrénées-la-aerolínea-de-euzkadi.html (translated)
7. http://bioold.science.ku.dk/drnash/model/spain/did.html
8. http://www.aviationcorner.net/gallery_en.asp?aircraft_type=Airspeed%20AS.6%20Envoy&aircraft_type_id=2306 (translated)

Airspeed Envoy, part three

The Airspeed Envoy was a British light, twin-engined transport aircraft that was designed and built by Airspeed Ltd. in the 1930s.
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

Airspeed AS.6 Envoy, part two

The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy was a British light, twin-engined transport aircraft designed and built by Airspeed Ltd. in the 1930s. It was exported to many countries, among them:

• Finland: On 1st March 1942 the Finnish Air Force acquired one Airspeed AS.6E Envoy III from Germany which previously had belonged to Ceskoslovenske Statní Aerolinie (CSA - Czechoslovak's National Airline). It was given as a compensation for the De Havilland DH.89 'Lappi' (registered as OH-BLB) that the Luftwaffe shot down erroneously. The aircraft was used until 1943, when it was damaged beyond repair on 31st July 1943.
• South Africa: Seven exemplar were ordered for the joint use of the South African Airways and the South African Air Force. Three of them were delivered in a military form, and four of them were delivered in a civilian variant. They were used to cover the air route between Johannesburg-Bloemfontein-Port Elizabeth, which opened on 12th October 1936. Each of those aircraft could be transformed by a small work crew and in just a matter of hours, into the light bomber or reconnaissance version with a dorsal turret equipped with a Vickers K gun. Some transport versions were used in the East African Campaign as reconnaissance aircraft in 1940-1941.
• Slovakia: The Slovak Republic received the ex-Czechoslovak machine registered as 'OK-VIT' that had belonged to the Vitkovice Mine & Steel Company. It was delivered in the spring of 1940 and operated with the Slovenska Letecka Spolocnost (National Slovak Airline) operating from Bratislava. On 3rd May 1943, it suffered port engine failure and crashed on landing at Nozdrkovce airfiled, in Trencin, Slovakia. 

Sources:

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

2. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_prewar.pdf

3. http://www.saairforce.co.za/the-airforce/squadrons/12/60-squadron

4. http://britishaviation-ptp.com/airspeed_as6.html

5. http://www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2462

Airspeed AS.6 Envoy, part one

The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy was a British light twin-engined transport aircraft designed and built by Airspeed at Portsmouth Aerodrome, in Hampshire.
As the type was quite popular, it was exported to many countries:

• Australia: As the aircraft became famous thanks to air races, it became very popular within commonwealth's airlines, so the Australian airline Ansett Airlines bought two exemplars. A private-owned Envoy which was registered as VH-UXY and modified with a long-range fuel tank filling the middle of the cabin, was piloted by Charles Ulm when it disappeared in December 1934 when attempting to flight the Pacific route between Oakland, in New Zealand to Honolulu in Hawaii. 
• China-Guangxi: The warlord of this Southern province had at least one Envoy serving with his Air Force. Further details are unknown but it was most probably destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• Independent State of Croatia: Two Airspeed AS.6E were given to the ZNDH (Independent State of Croatia's Air Force) by the German Luftwaffe. They were used in the light transport role and were destroyed during the course of the War.
• Czechoslovakia: The Czechoslovak's National Airways, CSA, ordered four AS.6 Envoy JC in 1937 to equip their air routes. When Czechoslovakia was annexed, all of them were passed over to the Luftwaffe.
  Additionally one machine was bought by Vítkovické horní a hutní tezirstvo (Vitkovice Mine & Steel Co.) in 1936 based in the Czech city of Ostrava and was used by his president.

Sources:

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

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Air_Force_(Independent_State_of_Croatia)

3. http://britishaviation-ptp.com/airspeed_as6.html

4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/114447/Airspeed-AS-6E-Envoy