Armstrong Whitworth A.W.650 Argosy

Ronald Ciura, e-mail, 06.04.2013 18:02 I worked on Argosies with ZAT-Detroit in 1965. Part of the initiation to he crew involve walking the boom! While in for inspections it was common to sleep in the aircraft while on overtime. They figured once you left you may not be back soon. There was always a Post Inspection Party. Keith Groesbeck was the Lead. reply

Roy Lawton, e-mail, 01.04.2013 21:52 Hi, I just wanted to point out to any readers who might wish to contact me, that my email address has changed from the original I posted on this site on 18-02-2010. It was where I gave details my experiences of working on the very first Argosy with John Jeavons in 1959, and that it could all be found in my life story, 'Memories of a Coventrian' reply

Bryan Neish, e-mail, 21.03.2013 22:37 Yes I remember Jack Ager very well. Jack was a foreman at the Bitteswell site of Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft during the flight trials of the prototype Argosies and kept a little 'black book' of the idiosyncrasies of those early aircraft. Jack then became a Tech Rep and went with the first Argosies to the US with Riddle Airlines in Miami, then to Capitol in Wilmington, Delaware and then to Zantop Air Transport up in Detroit. I remember very well handling some spares orders when Jack would call me and say they wanted, for example, control cable 'part number X' but a couple of inches shorter because on the early production aircraft they had moved a pulley or fairlead and the standard part would not fit! all of that sort of information was stored in Jack's little black book - an absolute goldmine of information. My wife and I spent many happy hours with Jack and his wife Bunny in Detroit - a top man and a real down-to-earth engineer. reply

Mark Goertzen, e-mail, 19.03.2013 01:10 I flew FE on the last flying group of Argosies from 1980 to 1990 in Alaska. We operated one AW650, civil version and one AW 660, military variant out Anchorage and Fairbanks. Very reliable aircraft with the Darts but underpowered with temps over 70F. Paracargo for the Alaska Fire Service out s /n XP447 and point to point work with N896U (civil first built). Great aircraft for unapproved strips. I as recall we dropped 1.2 million lbs in 1988 in a three week time span, all under parachute. Heavy fire year. I have hrs of video. Lots of great memories but with hearing loss. Does anybody remember a Englishman named Jack Maurice Ager? He was my mentor and keep the program running till the end of the aircrafts life. reply

Ken Anderson, e-mail, 10.03.2013 02:54 I was just wondering if there is a kitset model of the AW650 ARGOSY ever produced? As I have done a model of a mk32 bristol freighter and chopped it back to a mk31 model reply

phil williams, e-mail, 21.12.2012 21:24 hi.i was one of the groundcrew waiting to see in xp413 at khormaksar in 1964.we waited at marshalling bay ,seeing it at its final approach,and then nothing*.a land rover then appeared from the bondu,the driver shouting to us,' its in the oggin'.sure enough,there it was,bobbing about in the harbour with life rafts deployed*.from next day ,and probbly to this,we were known as -take a dive with 105--and had a suitable picture above crewroom door of an argosy sinking below the waves lol.i was an inst tech on m r t wing --84 sqdn bevs ,and 105 argosies,served in aden ,63-65,hope this was of interest. reply

Andrew, e-mail, 01.01.2012 16:55 I have a brand new aircraft seat, part number F1004-001, turquoise blue leather with full harness. Can anyone please confirm if this is from an Argosy (Nav seat) as I believe? Thanks. reply

Bryan Neish, e-mail, 24.08.2011 17:26 Howard. Do you remember Jack Howard, the AWA Tech Rep in Oklahoma City during that period? He of the 'handlebar moustache' I seem to remember - until he married a Mexican girl who made him shave it off! :-) reply

Howard Allmon, e-mail, 08.07.2011 02:48 Riddle(later AIRLIFT)bought 5 AW 650s for LogAir in July 1959. Operated them for 3 years all on LogAir. Sold them to CAPITOL out of Nashville ,TN for a 3 year LogAir operation Jul 1962-June 1965. I was F /E with Capitol based at Tinker AFB Oklahoma City. Had RR Dart engines, great out of Bangor and not a lot of power out of Kelly at 100+. reply

Bryan Neish, e-mail, 18.05.2011 19:11 Glenn, your mention of the Argosies operating with Zantop (and anecdotes from other contributors) brought back some happy (although slightly hazy with age) memories! :-) I was a tech spares rep seconded from Coventry to the US for various periods in 1962 /3 /4. Initially the Argosies were operated by Riddle Airlines out of Miami. Some were transferred to Capitol Airlines in Wilmington, Delaware and others to Zantop in Detroit, Michigan. I moved to Detroit in February '63 and first met the Zantop brothers Howard and Duane and their 'third brother' Gene Zerkel (I believe their real third brother was a pilot who was killed in WWII). What a bunch of characters - they worked hard and played even harder! I believe their company started off as truckers but took a light aircraft as a bad debt so decided to use it and from that grew their airfreight organisation flying Logair and shipping car parts around the US for the Ford Motor Company. The Argosy did particularly well on the Logair network as I recall, consistently the highest scoring aircraft for reliability and punctuality. I moved out of DTW in May '63 to open up an office in La Guardia, NYC but drove regularly up to Detroit (through Niagara Falls and Canada) to visit Zantop at DTW. I too was an AWA apprentice ('53 to '58) at Baginton on aircraft and Whitley on missiles before National Service in the RAF and then rejoining AWA in the Product Support Dept in July '61. reply

Capt. Glenn Smith TWA (Ret), e-mail, 03.02.2011 22:20 I flew the AW-650 out of Wright Patterson AFB in Fairborn, Ohio for Zantop Air Transport under a Logair contract with the USAF from June '65 utill Jan '66 when I was hired by TWA. Although it was not considered a very "attractive" aircraft it served its purpose well as a "Trash Hauler" Designed for a two-man crew operation for the RAF, we operated with an extra "Flt Engineer /Cargo Master" crewmember. An easy aircraft to fly compared to the Curtis C-46 which Zantop also operated on a Navy "Quicktrans" contract. Lots of fond memories way back when........ reply

PH, e-mail, 21.01.2011 13:52 I received my AW660 course at Bitteswell and Baginton in early 1960 before the first aircraft joined the RAF, and was subsequently involved with servicing the aircraft in Cyprus and Changi. In June 1967 I travelled round the Pacific with XP448 to at least 15 landings ranging from the major airfields of Darwin and Nandi to the golf course in the Solomons. Only problem was a brief hold up while we fixed a leaking fuel vent surge tank in Noumea. Later - much later- my company was involved with the preparation of 9Q-COE (A 660) before deliver to the DRC. reply

Ian Paterson, e-mail, 13.01.2011 19:40 Flew in one of these on detachment to Creil, in France. We lost an engine on way and loadmasters got ready to push a diesel houchin off the ramp. Underpowered would be an understatement. reply

michael quinlan, e-mail, 29.05.2010 17:59 Hi, i was stationed at Khormaksar in 1967 when the Arabian Army mutined , i was in the Supply Sqn, we did the runs to the Ma ala docks sending personal effects baCK TO THE u.K. I will allways remember my mate Allan Bulley he drove and i stood on the engine cowling with my head stuck through the roof of the 3 tonner as iwas the guard. Iremember very well doing the guards on the Red sea hotel, and the Marine craft unit, also the power house. Anyway i left Khormaksar in October 1967 on this aircraft called an Argosy, not a bad looking aircarft realy, only one thing i recall about it was the high pitch whistling sound it produced in flt, so to me it gained the nickname the whistling tit, as the navigational aides were in the front and it looked just like a nipple.quite amusing really. im 64 now but i will never forget Aden. reply

graham jackson, e-mail, 27.05.2010 18:30 remember in 1963 at r.a.f. riyan nr aden argosy being flown by a.v.m. johnny johnson clipping slight rise onto one of our two sand runways caused a few heart stopping moments reply

Paul Herbert, e-mail, 24.03.2010 23:51 David are you sure you are not confusing this with the Beverley ?. The Argosy didn't have an "upper deck" with rearward facing seats, upstairs was where the crew sat at the front , four seats, Pilot /Co /Engineer /Navigator, although the Beverley did operate with rear facing seats in the upper deck - the boom, would think that more likely, not in an Argosy. Regards, Paul H, Bicester. reply

David Burns, e-mail, 23.03.2010 00:41 In my earler comment I mis-typed the date. It should read 1967. reply

David Burns, e-mail, 23.03.2010 00:39 I flew in one of these from up in the Radfan Mountains in Aden in 1957 - don't remember exactly which airfield we flew from. I was in the upper deck seated backwords. Shortly after we took of we were over the edge of a mountain and the pilot dropped the nose, I guess to gain speed /lift. It was quite and experience. reply

john sheppard, e-mail, 31.08.2010 21:38 Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Baginton - where to start.. My first visit in short pants with my father who had worked there throughout the war.It was just after ww2, to see the model flying wing. I believe it was towed behind a Lancaster.I worked on the last civil Argosies in the early sixties and it was a sad day when over 4,000 highly skilled workers lost their jobs. I was fortunate to be working on R&D on missiles in the old and partly rebuilt Whitley factories.(Originally built with some help from German POW's of WW1 !) I first worked at Baginton and Whitley as an apprentice coppersmith. The Sea -slug was in development then. One version had Nitric Acid as the oxidant- did not last long! I remember bits of German V2's about as well. After my stint in the RAF I went back to the old firm as an Electrical Inspector and did some work on the Argosy, both military and civil versions. We were doing six ten hour night-shifts at one stage! The missiles at Whitley were my forte, that's where I spent my last aircraft years with the group, then Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and the wonderful Sea Dart. Red Top & equipment, (up from De Havilland)Blue Steel & the Stand off Bomb, ESRO (Euro Space Research Org)satellite prototype all crossed my path whilst I was there until 1968 and then closure. Whitley had the largest wind tunnel in western Europe, the Braithwaite (water)tanks could take the fuselage of the Argosy when simulating flying stresses on the mainplain etc., the heavy vibration plants and the climatic chamber were all the envy of the Western World and beyond. I'm seventy two now and left Coventry to its decline and lived in Wales ever since. Tears are streaming as i write this. I must have 'R&D' in my blood still from those days, as I still experiment, now with solar panels to light my bungalow and recently produced 'Brown's Gas' from my home built stainless generator.(Delightfully Deadly- but fun!!!!!!!!!!) reply

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