Airspeed A.S.6 Envoy

1934

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  PASSENGER, CRUISEVirtual Aircraft Museum / United Kingdom / Airspeed  

Airspeed A.S.6 Envoy

Pilot and eight-passenger enlarged and twin-engined development of the AS.5 Courier. First flown on 26 June 1934. About 50 built by Airspeed for British, Japanese, Czechoslovakian, Chinese and South African civil operators, plus a small number for the South African Air Force and the RAF (SAAF Envoys carrying bombs and one forward-firing and one dorsal-turreted machine-gun). Mitsubishi also built a number under licence. Engines fitted to Envoys included the Wolseley AR.9, Scorpio I or Aries III, Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC or Cheetah IX, Wright Whirlwind R.760 and Walter Castor II.

3-View 
Airspeed A.S.6 EnvoyA three-view drawing (800 x 827)

Specification 
 CREW2
 PASSENGERS6
 ENGINE2 x AS "Chetah IX", 260kW
 WEIGHTS
  Take-off weight2960 kg6526 lb
  Empty weight1920 kg4233 lb
 DIMENSIONS
  Wingspan15.9 m52 ft 2 in
  Length10.5 m34 ft 5 in
  Height2.8 m9 ft 2 in
  Wing area31.5 m2339.06 sq ft
 PERFORMANCE
  Max. speed325 km/h202 mph
  Cruise speed270 km/h168 mph
  Ceiling6700 m22000 ft
  Range990 km615 miles

Comments
Klaatu83, e-mail, 17.08.2014 17:14

In addition to becoming a successful fiction writer Nevil Shute Norway, who designed the aircraft shown here, wrote a fascinating non-fiction account of his experiences in the British aircraft industry. Entitled "Slide Rule", it is highly recommended to those interested in this website. In addition to his experiences with Airspeed Ltd., he also discusses his earlier experiences with Vickers, where he worked on the design and construction of the airship R-100. His discussion of the R-100 and it's ill-fated competitor, the infamous R-101, coming as they do from one who was on the "inside" and was really privy to what was going on at the time, are highly enlightening.

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John, e-mail, 17.07.2014 11:15

Around about 1956 when I was 10 years old the movie "On the Beach" frightened the life out of me. I have seen it a number of times since and it still does. Being set here in Australia it was of special significance to us and of course the screenplay was based on Mr Schute Norway's novel.

This led me to reading as many of his other novels as I could get my hands on, both fiction and non fiction. He seemed to have a love for us Aussies.

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Barry, 04.01.2013 16:29

During the invasion of Czechoslovakia the Germans captured 5 Envoys 2 x MkI, 2 x MkII and one MkIII. The two MkI's were given German marks namely CM+SA and DM+SA. Later all the MKI's and MkII's were sold to FInland and the sole MkIII was sold to the puppet regime in Slovakia.

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bill, e-mail, 20.07.2011 21:29

Read "Slide Rule" which is Nevils' autobiography which tells all about his creation of Airspeed and the planes they built. It is very good reading, just like his novels

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Klaatu83, e-mail, 05.03.2011 03:55

Designed by Nevil Shute Norway, who later became a novelist, writing such well-known books as "On The Beach", "No Highway in the Sky" and "A Town Called Alice".

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Wiktor, Harald, e-mail, 08.01.2011 19:32

Hallo, ich habe ein seltenes Foto einer Envoy oder Oxford aus Spanien (Civil-War Spanien 1936-1939) mit doppeltem Seitenleitwerk. Können Sie bei der Typbestimmung helfen oder Sendung per E-Mail?

Harald Wiktor

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Robert Bear, e-mail, 05.06.2010 00:01

Check out the 1938 film: "Q-Planes" with Ralph Richardson and Lawrence Oliver.
The Envoy played a pivotal role and an experimental aircraft that was supercharged and could better 300 mph...In your dreams!

reply

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