Airspeed Ltd.

Template:Short description {{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} Template:More citations needed Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | headquarters | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | subsidiaries | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }}

Airspeed Limited was established in 1931 to build aeroplanes in York, England, by A. H. Tiltman and Nevil Shute Norway (the aeronautical engineer and novelist, who used his forenames as his pen-name). The other directors were A. E. Hewitt, Lord Grimthorpe and Alan Cobham. Amy Johnson was also one of the initial subscribers for shares.

Foundation

Airspeed Ltd. was founded by Nevil Shute Norway (later to become a novelist as Nevil Shute) and designer Hessell Tiltman. In his autobiography, Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer, Norway gives an account of the founding of the company and of the processes that led to the development and mass production of the Airspeed Oxford. He received the Fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Society for his innovative fitting of a retractable undercarriage to an aircraft.

Early operations

The AS.1 Tern, the first British high-performance glider (sailplane), was built to get publicity and attract more capital by setting British gliding records. A glider could be designed and built in two or three months while the design office and workshop were being set up in half of an empty bus garage on Piccadilly in York.Template:Sfn Shute flew the Tern's first test flight.Template:Sfn

In 1932 Airspeed produced the AS.4 Ferry, a three-engined, ten-passenger biplane designed specifically for Sir Alan Cobham.Template:Sfn

In March 1933 the firm moved to Portsmouth where the City Council gave generous terms for a factory building constructed to Airspeed's requirements at the local airport.Template:Sfn The first Airspeed Courier was flown from there in 1933,Template:Sfn followed by the first of a twin-engined development of the Courier, the Airspeed Envoy, in 1934.Template:Sfn Both the Courier and the Envoy were made in small numbers. In the same year, a long-range racing version of the Envoy, the AS.8 Viceroy, was developed for the England-Australia MacRobertson Air Race.

In August 1934, Airspeed (1934) Limited made a public issue of shares, in association with the Tyneside ship builder Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1934 six Couriers had been sold to an operating company for a hire purchase deposit of £5 each. Nevil Shute Norway wrote that they could come back to Airspeed and as an "obsolescent type" might not be so easy to sell again. He got a reputation as being "unscrupulous" for resisting the auditors' attempt to write them down on the books because, with growing talk of war, civil aircraft of any size would sell immediately. As the six were worth nearly twenty thousand pounds, writing them down to half that would add £10,000 to their loss, making the firm's proposed share issue a very unattractive investment. Shute could see from his office the four hundred workers in the workshop with families depending on them.Template:Sfn In 1936 most of the unsold Couriers and Envoys were sold and found their way to the Spanish Civil War. The demonstration Envoy was sold to the Spanish Nationalists for £6000, paid for in cash.Template:Sfn In 1935, the sole Airspeed Viceroy was nearly sold to Ethiopia for use against Italian forces.Template:Sfn

In 1934 Shute negotiated a licensing agreement with Fokker.Template:Sfn In 1935, Airspeed signed a manufacturing licensing agreement for the Douglas DC-2 and several Fokker types, with Fokker to be a consultant for seven years. Airspeed considered making the Fokker D.XVII fighter for Greece, which wanted to buy from Britain for currency reasons. Shute and a Fokker representative "who was well accustomed to methods of business in the Balkans", spent three weeks in Athens but did not close the deal. After a year, the drift to war, and their Air Ministry contracts, meant that the Dutch could not go to the Airspeed factory or attend board meetings.Template:Sfn

Wolseley engine

All Airspeed aeroplanes under manufacture or development in 1936 were to use the Wolseley Scorpio, a radial engine of about Template:Convert which was under development by Nuffield. The project was abandoned in September 1936 after the expenditure of about two hundred thousand pounds when Lord Nuffield got the fixed price I.T.P. (Intention to Proceed) contract papers, which would have required re-orientation of their offices with an army of chartered accountants) and decided to deal only with the War Office and the Admiralty, not the Air Ministry.

Norway thought that it was a very advanced engine at a low price, so its loss was a major disaster for Airspeed. Template:Sfn

Second World War

In June, 1940, formal announcement was made that de Havilland had completed negotiations for the purchase from Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., of their holding of Airspeed ordinary shares. Airspeed retained its identity as a separate company though as a wholly owned subsidiary of de Havilland.

Around 1943 in order to reduce the risk from Luftwaffe bombing, a new dispersed design office was opened at Fairmile Manor in Cobham, Surrey; little is known of this establishment and nothing survives there today.

Airspeed's most productive period was during the Second World War. The AS.10 Oxford had a production run exceeding 8,500. 3,800 AS51 and AS58 Horsa military gliders were built for the Royal Air Force and its allies. Many of these were used as part of the D-Day landings, and later for the Operation Market Garden.

Postwar operations

File:BEA Ambassador at Manchester Ringway.jpg

Airspeed Ambassador in service with British European Airways in 1953

The company reverted to the company name of Airspeed Limited on 25 January 1944. Postwar it converted over 150 surplus ex-RAF Oxford aircraft as AS65 Consuls for the commercial market.Template:Sfn Airspeed went on to produce the superbly streamlined pressurised twin-engined piston airliner called the AS57 Ambassador. This served successfully for some years with British European Airways as their "Elizabethan Class".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1951 Airspeed Limited was fully merged with de Havilland who then cancelled further development of the Ambassador,Template:Sfn although the Ambassador fleet continued in service with smaller airlines such as Dan-Air until 1971.Template:Sfn The original York factory was demolished in November 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Aircraft

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

• AS.1 Tern – (1931)<ref name="Flight1951">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Glider (sailplane); built to get publicity by breaking British gliding records (Two built; plus parts for third, which were sold)

• AS.4 Ferry – (5 April 1932)

Three-engine biplane transport aircraft, four builtTemplate:Sfn

• AS.5 Courier – (1 April 1933)

Single-engine low-wing monoplane passenger transport with retractable undercarriage of conventional configuration, 16 builtTemplate:Sfn

• AS.6 Envoy – (26 June 1934)

Two-engine development of the Courier, 60 builtTemplate:Sfn

• AS.8 Viceroy – (August 1934)

Variant of Envoy, adapted for long-range flight. One aircraft was builtTemplate:Sfn

• AS.10 Oxford<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> – (19 June 1937)

Larger two-engine development of Envoy, built in large numbers in the Second World War.

• AS.16

Projected licence production of Fokker F.XXII, none built.

• AS.20

Projected licence production of Fokker F.XXXVI, none built.

• AS.22

Projected licence production of Fokker C.X, none built.

• AS.30 Queen Wasp – (11 June 1937)

Single-engine single-seat biplane target drone aircraft, seven built.

• AS.39 Fleet Shadower – (18 October 1940)

Four-engine high-wing monoplane maritime patrol aircraft prototype. Two aircraft were ordered; one was completed

• AS.45 Cambridge – (19 February 1941)

Single-engine two-seater low-wing monoplane trainer aircraft with retractable undercarriage of conventional configuration. Two aircraft were built

File:AirspeedHorsaCockpitExternal.jpg

Airspeed Horsa cockpit

• AS.51 Horsa I – (12 September 1941)

Large troop-carrying glider; 2,245 built including seven prototypes.

• AS.57 Ambassador – (10 July 1947)

Two-engine high-wing piston engine airliner, 23 builtTemplate:Sfn

• AS.58 Horsa II –

Variant of Horsa with openable nose section for front loading; 1,561 built.

• AS.65 Consul – (March 1946)

Civilian conversion of wartime Oxford; 161 were converted in 1946-48.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book