Airspeed Consul

AS.65 Consul
Airspeed Consul G-AIDX of Esso Petroleum at Manchester in 1954
Role Utility transport
Manufacturer Airspeed Limited
First flight 1946
Number built 162


The Airspeed Consul is a British light twin-engined airliner of the immediate post-war period. It was a conversion of Airspeed Oxford military trainers surplus after the Second World War.

Development

The civil AS.6 Airspeed Envoy eight seat airliner of 1934 was militarised in 1937 to create the mass-produced AS.10 Airspeed Oxford trainer. The Oxford was used by several air forces for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and 8,586 were produced.[1][2]

From 1946, 162 Oxfords[lower-alpha 1] were refurbished and adapted for civilian use as the Consul at Portsmouth, as war surplus Oxfords were common and inexpensive.[1] They were superficially attractive as a small twin-engine airliner, and Airspeed soon offered a conversion kit.

Airspeed Consul of Aer Lingus at Liverpool in 1949

The Consul saw service with small scheduled and charter airlines as feeder liners in Great Britain, and also Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, East Africa and Canada, and was the first type operated by Malayan Airways, the predecessor of Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. Some Consuls were operated as executive transports by large industrial companies.

However, their wooden construction, heavy wartime use, somewhat tricky handling and small capacity (six seats) told against them. Many of the 'civil' conversions were bought by military users; and the Consul served as a VIP transport with the air forces of Britain, Canada and New Zealand, all of whom already operated Oxfords. In 1949, the Israeli Air Force purchased a number of civil Consuls and re-converted them to military trainers. They were used by 141 squadron until 1957, a year after the Oxford was retired by the Royal Air Force.

While several Oxfords survive, the Consul has not been so fortunate. G-AIKR, a former children's playground attraction is owned by the Canada Aviation Museum; it is on loan to the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum, where it is being returned to Oxford status. As of 2003, Consul VR-SCD was known to exist in Singapore, stored in pieces.

Operators

Civil Operators

A Consul which has been cosmetically restored to represent an example previously operated by Malayan Airways and is now preserved in Singapore
 Burma
 Iceland
 India
 Ireland
 Israel
 Italy
 Jordan
 Malaya
 Kenya
 Malta
 South Africa
 Spain
 Sweden
 Tanganyika
 United Kingdom
Airspeed Consul of Lancashire Aircraft Corporation at Manchester in 1950 on scheduled service to London (Northolt)
 United Nations

Military Operators

 Argentina
 Belgian Congo
 Burma
 Israel
 New Zealand
 Turkey

Accidents and incidents

Specifications

Data from British Civil Aircraft since 1919 [9]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Airspeed AS.65 Consul.
  1. ↑ 161 Consuls were sold by Airspeed,[1] with the second prototype, G-AEHF retained by Airspeed.[3]
  1. 1 2 3 Stroud Aeroplane Monthly July 1995, p. 67.
  2. ↑ Middleton Aeroplane Monthly June 1980, pp. 323–324.
  3. ↑ Jackson 1974, p. 396.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Hamlin 2001, pp. 262-285
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Jackson 1973, pp.30-33
  6. ↑ Ay, Carlos (2013-08-15). "Catálogo Ilustrado de Aeronaves de la Fuerza Aérea Argentina". Gaceta Aeronautica (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Hamlin 2001, pp. 246-259
  8. ↑ Hamlin 2001, pp. 225-233
  9. ↑ Jackson 1973, p.33.
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