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| The Accountant (named for its supposed good economics) was another attempt to replace the DC-3 in the postwar airlines and air forces. Aviation Traders, a small British company mainly involved in converting passenger aircraft to freighters, decided to enter the market in 1952 with a modern-technology turboprop.
The company changed its mind a lot over construction methods and configuration and promised that the production aircraft would differ greatly from the prototype, perhaps not the wisest marketing strategy. If the company had won big orders they had no suitable facilities in which to produce them. Eventually the company's own accountants were heeded and it was realized that the sensible decision was to not proceed further. The ATL-90 was stored in 1958 after a very short flying career, and broken up in 1960.
Jim Winchester "The World's Worst Aircraft", 2005 FACTS AND FIGURES © The Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop
was the engine of choice of the
day, powering the Fokker
Friendship and Handley Page
Dart Herald, both of which were
built by large manufacturers on
the basis of sound economics. © Standard accommodation
would be 28 passengers,
although a 42-seat ATL-91
version was planned, as was a
14-seat executive transport. © The unusual shape of the forward
fuselage was due to the swing
nose arrangement proposed for
production freighter aircraft. The
passenger version would have had
a different shape.
| PASSENGERS | 28 |
| ENGINE | 2 x 1298kW Rolls-Royce Dart R.Da.6 Mk 512 |
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 12928 kg | 28502 lb |
| Empty weight | 7693 kg | 16960 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 25.15 m | 83 ft 6 in |
| Length | 18.93 m | 62 ft 1 in |
| Height | 7.70 m | 25 ft 3 in |
| Wing area | 58.71 m2 | 631.95 sq ft |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Max. speed | 475 km/h | 295 mph |
| Cruise speed | 470 km/h | 292 mph |
| Range w/max.fuel | 3364 km | 2090 miles |
| GrahamClayton, e-mail, 01.01.2023 04:40 "Eventually the company's own accountants were heeded and it was realized that the sensible decision was to not proceed further." LOL reply | | Colin prentice, e-mail, 14.05.2015 14:49 Saw it land once from warmers bridge. Was (still am) an avid spotter in those days. Still prefer a DC3. reply | | juan Guevara, e-mail, 01.01.2014 09:12 Iam surprise of the similarity of this plane with the Grumman Gulfstream I (G-I), which was a very successful executive plane for corporations. It seems to me that "the accountant" was not not successful because their designers were thinking in it as a commercial airline plane. However, Leroy Grumman found the right market for his G-I. reply | | Paul Nice, e-mail, 09.03.2013 16:56 I remember being in the Air Training Corp and we were taken to look at this new plane being built at the airport. Being fourteen or so at the time I can not remember much except looking up at it surrounded by scaffolding. I don't remember seeing it fly but I have been given some photos taken when it first flew. reply | |
| | Frank Hall, e-mail, 10.05.2011 01:07 By the time Freddie Laker (who ran Aviation Traders) realised that he was on an uphill struggle to sell this machine for about 20 times the cost of DC3s at the time, a great deal of money was thrown away. I saw it looking forlorn and abandoned at Southend Airport in 1959 or so By then, Laker had bought the entire RAF fleet of Percival Prentices, all but filling the grass areas of Southend and was converting them to civil use. reply | | col M, e-mail, 16.08.2010 00:21 There is a clip of this aircarft taxying at the Farnbourough airshow in the late 1950's. The clip was part of the British newsreel footage. A compilation of these clips are availabe on video from the 'DD' video commpany, London. Well worth a look for all the wonderful Britsh aircraft of the era - many of which were the ahead of any others in the world at this time. reply | | Thirumalesh BJ, e-mail, 21.09.2007 06:41 This aircraft is sufficient enough, I wanna know how it is different from other planes. I hereby request you to keep me informed recent updation in Aircraft industry.
Regards
Thirumalesh
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