The Airspeed Consul was a British light twin-engined airliner of the immediate post-war period.

History

The civil AS.6 Envoy eight seat airliner of 1934 was militarised in 1937 to create the mass produced AS.10 Oxford trainer, 8,751 of which were produced for the RAF, RNZAF, RCAF, RAAF and SAAF under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. RAF is an three letter acronym for: Royal Air Force -- the Air Force of the United Kingdom (see also Air Ministry) Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) -- a German terror organisation Rigas Autobusu Fabrika -- a factory making buses in Riga, Latvia Rapid Action Force in India Računarski Fakultet RAF... The Royal New Zealand Air Force or RNZAF is the air operations arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. ... The RCAF Roundel is based on that of the British Royal Air Force with a maple leaf, a symbol of Canada in the centre. ... The RAAF Roundel is based on that of the British Royal Air Force, with the central circle replaced by a Kangaroo, a symbol of Australia. ... SAAF flag The South African Air Force (SAAF) is the Air Force of South Africa. ...

War surplus Oxfords were superficially attractive as a small twin engined airliner, and Airspeed soon offered a conversion kit. From 1946, 162 Oxfords were refurbished after the war for civilian use as Consuls. The type saw service with feederliners in Great Britain, and also Belgium, Iceland, Malta, East Africa and Canada, and was the first type operated by present giants Singapore airlines and Malaysian Airlines, (then Malayan Airways). However their wooden construction, heavy wartime use, somewhat tricky handling and small capacity told against them. Many of the 'civil' conversions were in fact used with military users; the Consul served as a VIP transport with the airforces of Britian, Canada and New Zealand all of whom were already operating Oxfords. In 1949 the Israeli airforce purchased a number of civil Consuls and re-converted them to military trainers where they served with 141 squadron until 1957, a year after the Oxford was retired by the RAF. East Africa is a region generally considered to include: Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Somalia Tanzania Uganda Burundi, Rwanda, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Sudan are sometimes considered a part of East Africa. ... Malaysia Airlines is the national airline of Malaysia. ... The word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. ...

G-AIKR, a former childrens 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 another Consul was known to exist in Singapore, in peices. The Canada Aviation Museum (French: Musée de laviation du Canada) is the national aviation history museum, located in Ottawa, Ontario. ... A museum primarily of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and its predessors the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, and New Zealand squadrons of the Royal Air Force. ...

Specifications

• Wingspan: 16.3 m (53 ft 4 in)
• Length: 10.8 m (35 ft 4 in)
• Height: 3.1 m (10 ft, 1 in)
• Weight, empty: 2,720 kg (6,000 lb)
• Weight, maximum: 3 740 kg (8,250 lb)

Performance

• Max speed: 300 km/h (190 mph)
• Rate of climb: 325 m (1,070 ft) /min
• Ceiling: 7,163 m (23,500 ft)
• Range: 1,448 km (900 mi)
• Powerplant: 2 375-hp Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah X radial piston engines.