Airspeed Envoy
| AS.6 Envoy | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The last surviving Airspeed Envoy, operated by Private Charter Ltd at Manchester (Ringway)Airport in 1948 | |
| Role | Transport |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Airspeed Ltd |
| Designer | A. H. Tiltman |
| First flight | 26 June 1934 |
| Introduction | 1934 |
| Retired | 1951 |
| Produced | 1934-1939 |
| Number built | 52 |
| Variants |
Airspeed Viceroy Airspeed Oxford. |
The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy was a British light, twin-engined transport aircraft designed and built by Airspeed Ltd. in the 1930s at Portsmouth Aerodrome, Hampshire.
The Envoy was designed by A. H. (Hessell) Tiltman as a twin-engined development of his earlier Courier. It used the same wooden construction, outer wing panels and innovative retracting main undercarriage.
The Envoy was a twin-engined low-wing cabin monoplane of all-wood construction apart from fabric covered control surfaces. It had a rearward retracting main undercarriage with a fixed tailwheel. The aircraft was built in three series, the Series I was the initial production variant which did not have trailing-edge flaps, seventeen built. Thirteen Series II variants were built with split flaps and the Series III (19-built) was similar but had detailed improvements. Each series of the Envoy was sold with a choice of engines including the Wolseley Aries, Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah V or Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC radial engines. These different engines were housed under a variety of cowlings, mostly short chord Townend rings but also wider chord cowlings with and without blisters for cylinder heads.
The prototype, G-ACMT, first flew on 26 June 1934 and in July 1934 appeared in public for the first time at an exhibition by the Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC) at Hendon. Small-scale production then began at the Portsmouth factory.
The first production Envoy I, G-ACVH, flew in October 1934 and was used as a company demonstrator. The second, also a Series I but fitted with Wolseley Aries III radial engines, was delivered to Lord Nuffield. This aircraft was due to fly in the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Australia in 1934 but the aircraft was damaged and withdrawn from the race. Another aircraft, a specially modified version with long-range tanks (the AS 8 Viceroy) got as far as Athens before leaving the race due to damage. One Envoy took part in the Schlesinger Race to Johannesburg, but crashed, killing two of a crew.
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