Airspeed Ambassador

AS.57 Ambassador
Dan Air Ambassador at Bristol Airport in 1965
Role	Airliner
Manufacturer	Airspeed Ltd
First flight	10 July 1947
Introduction	1951
Primary user	British European Airways
Produced	1947–1953
Number built	23

The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador was a British twin piston-engined airliner that first flew on 10 July 1947 and served in small numbers through the 1950s and 1960s.

The Ambassador had its origin in 1943 as a requirement identified by the Brabazon Committee for a twin-engined short-to-medium-haul replacement for the Douglas DC-3. Airspeed Ltd. was asked to prepare an unpressurised design in the 14.5-ton gross weight class, using two Bristol Hercules radial engines. In 1943, the company duly set up a dispersed design office in Fairmile Manor at Cobham in Surrey.

By the time the British Ministry of Aircraft Production ordered two prototypes from Airspeed, immediately after the end of the Second World War, the design had grown substantially. The Ambassador would be pressurised, have more powerful Bristol Centaurus radials and have a maximum gross weight of almost 24 tons.

The revised design offered seating for 47 passengers and, having a tricycle undercarriage, looked more modern than the DC-3s, Curtiss Commandos, Avro Lancastrians and Vickers Vikings that were common on Europe's shorter airline routes. With three low tailfins and a long pointed nose, it shared something of the character of the larger transcontinental Lockheed Constellation.

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