Wasn’t it designed to meet a perceived requirement for a transport capable of delivering Pegasus engines/spares to Harrier Squadrons operating off rough strips near the front line?

Hence max all up weight may well have been relatively low compared to the C130 or Belfast?

Though why they couldn’t use Andovers to carry spare Pegasus’ is perhaps beyond me…I thought they were designed for rough-field operations, and were fairly STOL. Limited size of the fuselage perhaps?

….Or was the AW681 perhaps actually supposed to offer true VTOL capability, rather than just a STOL capability?

Paul F

It was intended to add large packs of lift engines under the wings for V/STOL operations, most of the time (had it have gone operational probably all the time) it would have operated under STOL conditions. As somebody above said, the variant with the Nimrod wing looks like a better transport option, of course it would not have the same short field performance.