Airspeed Courier

Infobox Aircraft
name=AS.5 Courier


caption=Airspeed Courier A5.5 G-ACJL, pictured on 1934 MacRobertson England - Australia Air Race
type=5/6-seat light transport
manufacturer=Airspeed
designer=A. Hessell Tiltman
first flight=10 April 1933
introduced=
retired=
status=
primary user=
more users=
produced=
number built=16
unit cost=
variants with their own articles=

The Airspeed AS.5 Courier was a British six seat single engined light aircraft, production aircraft were built by Airspeed (1934) Limited at Portsmouth. It first flew on the 10 April 1933 and was the first British type with a retractable undercarriage to go into production, with a total of 16 built.

Development

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 being 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 perfecting airborne refuelling, Alan Cobham took off from Portsmouth on the attempted flight to India on 24 September 1934, being refuelled from a Handley Page W.10 before force landing at Malta due to a broken throttle.

A production run of 15 Couriers followed, being used for air-racing (one finished sixth in the MacRobertson Air Race to Australia in 1934), and as a light airliner and air taxi.

In 1936 financial interests bought two Couriers with the intent to selling them for use 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-ACVA. One of them, Arthur Gargett, died in the attempt; the other, Joseph Smith, was sentenced to four months in prison.

Owing to its advanced aerodynamics, two were used as research aircraft, one by the Royal Aircraft Establishment and one by Napier's, who used it for development of the Napier Rapier engine.

At the outbreak of World War 2, the majority of the surviving Couriers were impressed into the RAF, who used them for communications purposes. Only one Courier survived the War, being used for joyriding at Southend-on-Sea before being scapped in December 1947.

Variants

;AS.5 Envoy: Prototype - 240 hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC;AS.5A Envoy: Main production type - 240 hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC;AS.5B Envoy: Fitted with more powerful (277 hp) Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah V engine. Two built.;AS.5C Envoy: Testbed for Napier - Powered by 325 hp Napier Rapier IV engine.

Operators

;UK
*Royal Air Force

pecification

aircraft specifications
plane or copter?=plane
jet or prop?=prop

ref=British Civil Aircraft since 1919Cite book
author=Jackson, A.J
authorlink =
title="British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 1.
publisher=Putnam & Co
edition=2nd Edition
year=1973
isbn= 0-370-10006-9
crew=1
capacity=5
length main= 28 ft 6 in
length alt= 8.70 m
span main= 47 ft 0 in
span alt= 17.33 m
height main= 8 ft 9 in
height alt= 2.68 m
area main= 250 ft²
area alt= 23 m²
airfoil=
empty weight main= 2344 lb
empty weight alt= 1065 kg
loaded weight main= 3900 lb
loaded weight alt= 1770 kg
useful load main=
useful load alt=
max takeoff weight main=
max takeoff weight alt=
more general=

engine (prop)= Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC
type of prop= radial
number of props= 1
power main= 240 hp
power alt= 179 kW
power original=
max speed main= 133 knots
max speed alt= 153 mph, 246 km/h
cruise speed main= 115 knots
cruise speed alt= 132mph, 213 km/h
never exceed speed main=
never exceed speed alt=
stall speed main=
stall speed alt=
range main= 552 nm
range alt= 635 mi, 1022 km
ceiling main= 13500 ft
ceiling alt= 4115 m
climb rate main= 730 ft/min
climb rate alt= 3.7 m/s
loading main= 15.6 lb/ft²
loading alt= 77.0 kg/m²
power/mass main= 0.061 hp/lb
power/mass alt= 0.10 kW/kg
more performance=
armament=
avionics=

ee also

aircontent

related=

similar aircraft=

lists=
*List of aircraft of the RAF

see also=

References