Airspeed Ambassador

Common card · No. 312169

The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador is a British twin piston-engined airliner that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. It was one of the first postwar airliners to be produced. The Ambassador was developed in response to a requirement identified by the Brabazon Committee for a twin-engined short-to-medium-haul airliner as a replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Airspeed assembled a dispersed design team at Fairmile Manor, Cobham, Surrey, in 1943, which initially worked on a smaller proposal powered by Bristol Hercules radial engines; this was quickly superseded by a larger-capacity design aimed at better fulfilling the expansion in postwar civil air travel, although several entities doubted Airspeed's projected growth in air travel. Fitted with the new but conventional Bristol Centaurus radial engines, the Ambassador was designed to accommodate four Napier Nomad turbo-compound engines, a then-recent innovation. Its fuselage was compatible with pressurisation...

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