Airspeed Courier
| AS.5 Courier | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Airspeed Courier A5.5 G-ACJL, pictured on 1934 MacRobertson England - Australia Air Race | |
| Role | 5/6-seat light transport |
| Manufacturer | Airspeed |
| Designer | A. H. Tiltman |
| First flight | 10 April 1933 |
| Primary user | London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Ltd |
| Number built | 16 |
The Airspeed AS.5 Courier was a British six-seat single-engined light aircraft that saw some use as an airliner. Production aircraft were built by Airspeed (1934) Limited at Portsmouth. It first flew on 10 April 1933 and was the first British type with a retractable undercarriage to go into production, with a total of 16 built.
The prototype Courier was designed by Hessell Tiltman (co-founder of Airspeed Limited) and was built in 1932 by Airspeed at York for an attempt by Sir Alan Cobham to carry out a non-stop flight to India, using airborne refuelling. Airspeed moved from York to Portsmouth before the Courier G-ABXN first flew on 10 April 1933. The Courier was a wooden low-winged cabin monoplane; it had a novel feature for the day of a retractable undercarriage. The prototype was powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Lynx engine. The prototype had two minor accidents, in April 1933 at Portsmouth and in June 1933 at RAF Martlesham Heath. The aircraft was repaired on both occasions.
After a year spent perfecting airborne refuelling, Alan Cobham took off from Portsmouth in the prototype Courier on an attempted flight to India on 24 September 1934, being refuelled from a Handley Page W.10 before making a forced landing at Malta due to a broken throttle.
A production run of 15 Couriers followed during 1933/34, being used for air-racing (one finished sixth in the MacRobertson Air Race to Australia in 1934), and as a light airliner and for air taxi work.
In 1936 a gun-running organization, Union Founders' Trust, bought five Couriers with the intention of selling them for use by the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. However, protests from the non-interference lobby in England stopped delivery. Two Republican sympathisers on the Airspeed staff made an abortive attempt to steal G-ACVE. One of them, Arthur Gargett, died when it crashed after taking off at Portsmouth on 20 August 1936; the other, Joseph Smith, was sentenced to four months in prison.
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