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

Ambassador at Bristol Airport in 1965

It had its origin in 1943 as a requirement identified by the Brabazon Committee for a twin-engined, short to medium-haul DC-3 replacement. Airspeed Ltd was asked to prepare an unpressurized design in the 14.5 tonne gross weight class using two Bristol Hercules radials. 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 pressurized, have more powerful Bristol Centaurus radials, and have a maximum gross weight of almost 24 tonnes.

It offered seating for 47 passengers and, having a nose wheel undercarriage, looked far more modern than the Commandos, DC-3s, Lancastrians and Vikings that were common on Europe's shorter airline routes. With three low fins it shared something of the character of the larger trans-continental Lockheed Constellation. British European Airways operated up to 20 Ambassadors between 1952 and 1958, calling them "Elizabethans" in honour of the newly crowned Queen. It also helped the growth of Dan-Air an important airline in the development of package holidays.

The popularity of this splendid aircraft was soon eclipsed however by the arrival of faster turboprops such as the Vickers Viscount and, some years later, the Lockheed Electra. Two aircraft unfortunately made the headlines due to the Munich air disaster, in West Germany on 6 February 1958 (also a tragedy for English football) and a spectacular fatal crash landing at London's Heathrow Airport on 3 July 1968 by a BKS Air Transport Ambassador in which several horses on board died, a parked Trident was written-off and another had its tail torn-off just before the airliner hit terminal buildings. The accident was later found to have been caused by failure of a flap rod in the Ambassador's port wing. Coincidently, the Trident with the damaged tail (G-ARPI) was subsequently repaired and later involved in an (unconnected) fatal accident in June 1972, when, due to premature retraction of the leading-edge droops, it deep-stalled into a field near some reservoirs in Staines, Middlesex, killing all on board.

One Elizabethan has been preserved by the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Cambridgeshire in eastern England.

External links

• Image of an Ambassador