The Airspeed Ambassador was hailed as the Douglas DC-3’s heir apparent before the California-built type had cemented its place in history during D-Day and Market Garden. However, the post-war type failed to keep pace with technological advances, as Bruce Hales-Dutton describes
It was hardly an auspicious start for Britain’s latest airliner. A partial re-design during development delayed its service entry by a year at a time when even more advanced equipment was on the way. Yet the Airspeed Ambassador was to form a vital element in the transformation of the state-owned British European Airways (BEA) into one of the world’s top carriers.
Like many other airliners of the 1940s and ‘50s the Ambassador was inspired by the work of the wartime Brabazon Committee – a far-sighted attempt to plan the new aircraft Britain’s airlines would need when peace returned.
It was hardly an auspicious start for Britain’s latest airliner. A partial re-design during development delayed its service entry by a year at a time when even more advanced equipment was on the way. Yet the Airspeed Ambassador was to form a vital element in the transformation of the state-owned British European Airways (BEA) into one of the world’s top carriers.
Like many other airliners of the 1940s and ‘50s the Ambassador was inspired by the work of the wartime Brabazon Committee – a far-sighted attempt to plan the new aircraft Britain’s airlines would need when peace returned.
One of the specifications formulated by the committee was known as Type 2 and called for a Douglas DC-3 replacement. Among the manufacturers invited to submit proposals was Airspeed, which had been formed in 1931 by two former airship engineers, A Hassel Tiltman and NS Norway. Norway would become better known as Nevil Shute, the best-selling novelist.
Wooden wonders
Airspeed was known for building wooden aircraft like the Oxford trainer and Horsa troop-carrying gilder but had little experience of metal construction. Becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of de Havilland in 1940 not only increased its credibility but also brought production facilities at Christchurch and Portsmouth together with a new chief engineer.
In the 1930s, Arthur Hagg designed aerodynamically advanced aircraft like the de Havilland DH.88 Comet air racer and the DH.91 Albatross airliner. His views continued to run ahead of conventional thinking, and this made him dissatisfied with his first attempt at meeting the Type 2 requirements. Powered by two Bristol Hercules engines and lacking a pressurised passenger cabin, it didn’t seem to offer much of an advance on the DC-3.
Hagg’s next design, the AS.57, would use two of Bristol’s powerful Centaurus radials and an all-metal airframe with a near-circular fuselage cross-section. The high-mounted wing not only meant an aerodynamically clean top surface but also a low fuselage floor, good downward vision for passengers and sufficient clearance for the propellers. A cabin mock-up was ready by the end of 1944. Performance estimates indicated a cruising speed of 240mph at 20,000ft, carrying 40 first-class passengers.
But it wasn’t until September 1945 that the Ministry of Aircraft Production placed an order for two examples, now named Ambassador.
First flight
The initial prototype, G-AGUA (c/n 61), made its maiden flight from Christchurch in July 1947 with George Errington, Airspeed’s chief test pilot, and flight engineer John Pear on the flight deck. The 45min sortie was completed without major drama, although a spring tab became detached from the rudder and there was a partial electrical system failure towards the end.
As the flight test programme proceeded a number of snags emerged. The primary flight controls required further development and the ailerons were fairly ineffective, yet the Ambassador was relatively vice-free and easy to fly. With one Centaurus shut down, its propeller feathered and the other at maximum cruise power, the Ambassador was controllable down to 125mph.
It appeared at the Society of British Aircraft Constructors’ display at Radlett in 1948 but had gained no production orders. In November the aircraft was damaged following partial undercarriage failure.
The second prototype, G-AKRD (c/n 62), flew for the first time in August 1948. By then 20 aircraft had been ordered for BEA. This came as a big shock to Vickers. Its design team under George Edwards had been developing the turboprop VC.2 since the original Brabazon Type 2 specification had been divided into two, comprising the piston-powered Type 2A and the turboprop Type 2B. The VC.2 was now about a year behind the Ambassador.
Decisions, decisions
BEA was divided between the two types. Managing director Peter Masefield favoured the VC.2 but regarded its Rolls-Royce Dart powerplant as “a high-risk engine”. In his autobiography he wrote that the Ambassador, with its big 18-cylinder radials “vibrated through the sky at 240mph,” while the smoother Viscount was nearly 100mph faster. But, “as an insurance I concurred with the decision to order a fleet of Ambassadors.”
Major problems with the Dart brought the VC.2 to the brink of cancellation but Edwards persisted and the engine started to justify its initial promise. By now, though, the Ambassador was running into problems of its own. The relatively unconventional wing, which had been designed to induce laminar flow characteristics, was found to lack the required strength. Re-designing it was far from straightforward and de Havilland had to help. The matter wasn’t resolved until 1949.
In August 1950, the prototype VC.2, now known as the Viscount 630, was loaned to BEA and made history as the world’s first turbine-powered airliner to enter scheduled passenger service.
A series of trial revenue flights to Paris and Edinburgh convinced BEA that the Viscount was a winner, although the 24-seat Viscount 630 was too small. Improvements to the Dart, however, enabled Vickers to produce the 47-seat 700 Series. BEA ordered 20.
Ambassadorial reception
The Ambassador should have been ready for BEA’s summer 1951 schedule. None were delivered, but G-ALZN, furnished with 47 seats, was loaned to the airline to enable it gain operating experience with the type. In September it replaced Vickers Vikings on some rotations between Northolt and Paris, and during the next six months other examples appeared in BEA livery. The Ambassador routes were advertised in the timetable as operating from London Airport but when Vikings were used instead the passengers had to be bussed to Northolt.
Late or not, BEA was determined to make the most of the biggest, most powerful and most comfortable aircraft it had yet operated. The Ambassadors became the Elizabethan Class in honour of the new monarch.
Each aircraft was named after a famous person from the first Elizabethan age and carried a reproduction of its namesake’s signature in the passenger cabin.
There was an unusual Pullman-style compartment in the centre section under the wing with the seats facing each other across tables, two on the starboard side and three on the port. Elsewhere, the first 18 seats were arranged in rearward-facing rows with the remainder forward-facing.
The aircraft was normally operated by two pilots, a radio operator and two stewardesses. By the end of March 1952, BEA had taken delivery of six examples and made proving flights to most European capitals.
The Elizabethans finally entered scheduled service in March 1952 when G-ALZS inaugurated twice-daily flights between London and Paris. In his autobiography, Masefield saw it as, “the start of a long climb which was to see BEA become the premier airline within Europe and one of the best in the world.”
In April, a London-Milan connection was opened by G-ALZV and London- Vienna link by G-ALZR. Compared with the Vikings, the Elizabethans offered substantial time savings: nearly two hours to Milan and 1hr 20mins to Vienna. Passengers also appreciated the view made possible by the high wing and large windows.
Imperial luxury
The ‘Silver Wing’ services to Paris, which began in June 1952, revived the pre-war Imperial Airways luxury lunchtime flights. Only 40 passengers were accommodated in the all-first-class cabin and the flight was deliberately slowed down to a 1hr 20mins schedule to give passengers enough time to enjoy their Scotch salmon, lamb cutlets, Cape pears in port wine and Champagne. The meals were served by an augmented cabin crew comprising a head steward, bar steward and stewardess.
Passengers were driven from the Kensington terminal to London Airport in a special Silver Wing coach, and as the aircraft left the ramp, it received a personal salute from the BEA senior traffic officer. The return fare was £15.19s (£15.95), compared with the £11.14s (£11.70) tourist class fare.
Further Elizabethan routes followed with G-AMAD inaugurating London- Copenhagen-Stockholm services that October. The following month, BEA made its first royal flight with an Elizabethan when the Duke of Edinburgh flew from London to Malta in G-AMAB. The same aircraft carried him back from Malta to London in December, calling at Rome to pick up the Duchess of Kent.
Despite the delayed start BEA was pleased with its new aircraft. Masefield was reported as saying: “Operating costs of the Elizabethan are coming down steadily. I wish we had 30 instead of 20. We could use them all.”
But in his autobiography, Masefield expressed his concern about the type’s relatively untried sleeve valve Centaurus engines.
“To my relief,” he wrote, “the complex new engine, carefully maintained, proved to be reliable.
In contrast, the rest of the aircraft, especially its electrics, gave rise to prolonged and irritating troubles.”
European expansion
In April, G-AMAC inaugurated Elizabethan services on the London- Manchester route. Two days later the type operated routes from London to Amsterdam, Dusseldorf via Brussels and Hanover via Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
In the summer 1953 timetable Elizabethans were scheduled to operate daily rotations to Vienna via Zurich and five nights a week tourist connections to Geneva. Use of the fleet was, however, curtailed when G-ALZO was severely damaged in a heavy landing at Blackbushe Airport, Hampshire during a training sortie in July. It was dismantled and taken by road to London Airport where 2,600 hours of work restored it to flight and eventually mainline service.
Despite this setback the type began to appear on more routes during October: London-Brussels-Cologne, Manchester-Birmingham-Paris, Manchester-Amsterdam-Dusseldorf and London-Nice-Malta.
The January 1954 timetable featured Silver Wing offerings to Paris and Nice at fares of £16 return and £40.14s return respectively. A similar link to Brussels was also added but was relatively short-lived.
Also in January, an Elizabethan set a record by flying 34 passengers from London to Paris in just 46 minutes. By April the BEA network included daytime and night tourist flights to Malta via Naples, daily daytime London-Hamburg-Berlin links and London-Dusseldorf-Berlin and night tourist flights between London and Hamburg.
The final Elizabethan was delivered in March 1953 by which time the aircraft were logging 2,230 flying hours a year, the highest utilisation in BEA’s fleet. But with the Viscount 701 entering service just weeks later, it didn’t take long for passengers to decide which of the two types of aircraft they preferred.
Close shaves
Two Elizabethan flights had narrowly escaped disaster in 1954. In August G-ALZN was operating a Silver Wing flight from London to Paris with Capt RE Gilman in command when the aircraft was struck a glancing blow by an Air France DC-4. Both aircraft landed safely.
In November, G-ALZR, commanded by Capt James Cooke, lost both nosewheels just after taking off from London for Amsterdam with 40 passengers. After moving all the luggage from the front baggage compartment to the rear toilet area, and flying around for two hours to burn off fuel, Cooke landed safely on the main wheels and nosewheel leg. Nosewheel trouble afflicted Cooke on another flight when he was approaching Rome. Again, he landed safely.
In April 1955 G-AMAB, commanded by Capt A Bates, crashed near Dusseldorf after the port propeller went into to reverse pitch and couldn’t be feathered. Bates attempted to return to Dusseldorf but poor weather led to a missed approach. The aircraft stalled and crashed while avoiding high tension power cables but there were no fatalities among the 47 passengers or the crew.
That month BEA introduced a weekly London-Ajaccio-Malta rotation in association with Malta Airlines. This was BEA’s first service to Corsica, but on the outbound leg of the maiden flight, Elizabethan G-ALZZ had to make an unscheduled en route stop at Paris with a suspected engine problem. During the peak season, some BEA London-Malta flights connected with onward links to Catania in Sicily and to Cairo in Egypt via Tripoli, Libya.
Long in the tooth
BEA’s annual report for 1955/56 revealed that, of its fleet of 101 fixed-wing aircraft, only the turboprop Viscounts had made an operating profit. The Elizabethan fleet had incurred losses of £558,721. In 1957 it was decided to phase out the type in favour of more Viscounts. They replaced Elizabethans on the London-Brussels route, followed by London-Nice from July 1.
The Elizabethan bowed out in June 1958 when Flight BE467 from Cologne to London was operated by G-AMAF commanded by Capt Cooke. During its service with BEA, the Elizabethan fleet had carried 2,430,000 passengers and flown 31 million miles.
As the Elizabethans crter work, and in 1958 one was lost in what became known as the Munich Air Disaster. On February 6 G-ALZU operating Flight BE609 and commanded by Capt James Thain, made a refuelling stop at Munich while returning the Manchester United football team from a match against Red Star Belgrade.
Two take-off attempts were aborted because Thain was unhappy with the increase in engine power. During the third attempt, surging was experienced with number one engine. It was throttled back and then opened up more slowly. But before take-off speed was reached the aircraft entered an uneven area of slush on the runway and the speed dropped.
The aircraft ran off the end of the runway and crashed. Of the 38 passengers and six crew, 21 passengers and two crew members were killed. The German inquiry blamed Thain, who had survived the accident, for failing to ensure that that the upper wing surfaces were clear of ice. After two further inquiries it was determined that slush on the runway had caused the accident and Thain was exonerated.
Life after BEA
In 1951 Airspeed was fully absorbed by de Havilland, which decided to axe Ambassador production. Discussions had been in progress between Airspeed and prospective customers in Africa and Australia and the Airspeed sales director had been on the point of clinching an order for 12 aircraft from Trans-Australia Airlines when he was recalled. But de Havilland was determined to give priority to the Comet programme and to use Airspeed’s production facilities for building fighters.
Projected Ambassador developments had encompassed freighters as well as military and transport variants, including one with a rear loading ramp and another with turboprop engines. None progressed beyond the drawing board.
By the end of the 1958/59 financial year, seven of the surviving BEA fleet had been sold. Among the new owners were Autair International, BKS Air Transport and Shell Aviation.
Rolls-Royce and Napier each operated examples as engine test beds. Dan-Air London was to have the biggest fleet and continued to operate the type for inclusive tours until 1971.
Autair and BKS each operated three examples. Those of BKS were converted to a higher density configuration with new lightweight seats, lifting passenger capacity to 55. They operated scheduled services on domestic routes and were later converted to carry bloodstock.
“The horse charters helped keep us going during the winter,” recalled former BKS employee Dick Parnacott. But in July 1968 G-AMAD crashed at London’s Heathrow airport, killing all but two of its crew as well as several horses and their grooms. Two parked Tridents were also damaged.
Although it was quickly superseded by the more modern Viscount, the elegant Ambassador/Elizabethan opened a new era in air transport. It gave the airline an edge over its competitors and helped lay the foundations for BEA’s future success.
Today, though, it’s all but forgotten and is little more than a footnote in aviation history as BEA’s last major piston-engined airliner.
