Airspeed Oxford

My Grandad trained as a wireless operator on Oxfords at RAF Shawbury 🙂

He was also briefly involved with clandestine op’s on Lysanders before being shipped out to India.

Many thanks Peter for the update on the restoration in NZ of G-AIKR. I flew in this very aeroplane when it was still configured as an Airspeed Consul and was based at Coventry (Baginton). I last saw the aeroplane when it was Canada and was about to be transported to NZ. Good to hear it’s progress – sad in a way to see it gradually relinquish its Consul identity as I have such fond memories of this example – hence my alias on this forum. 🙂

Tim

Many thanks Peter for the update on the restoration in NZ of G-AIKR. I flew in this very aeroplane when it was still configured as an Airspeed Consul and was based at Coventry (Baginton). I last saw the aeroplane when it was Canada and was about to be transported to NZ. Good to hear it’s progress – sad in a way to see it gradually relinquish its Consul identity as I have such fond memories of this example – hence my alias on this forum. 🙂

Tim

The Oxford in the excellent Royal Belgian Air Force Museum in Brussels.

The Oxford in the excellent Royal Belgian Air Force Museum in Brussels.

The near perfect barn find Oxford by Don Subritzky is another Oxford in NZ and currently under restoration.

There are some photos here (along with heeeaps of other Oxfords) in this thread

The near perfect barn find Oxford by Don Subritzky is another Oxford in NZ and currently under restoration.

There are some photos here (along with heeeaps of other Oxfords) in this thread

Great pictures – please post more! Not enough Oxfords on this forum if you ask me – but then I am biased as I own EB518, the MkV mentioned earlier, as a quite astonishingly long term project.

Great pictures – please post more! Not enough Oxfords on this forum if you ask me – but then I am biased as I own EB518, the MkV mentioned earlier, as a quite astonishingly long term project.

Oxford/Consul G-AIKR ex-Canada is in the restoration workshops at the Air Force Museum, Wigram, New Zealand.

From their website:

“History of Oxford/Consul PK286/G-AIKR:

Manufactured at Portsmouth, England by ‘Airspeed Limited’, as an Oxford MkI, for the RAF PK286 saw little air force service and was sold back to Airspeed for conversion to civil ‘Consul’ standard in 1946. Registered as G-AIKR it was first leased to Chartair Limited (London) then purchased in 1947 by ‘Airwork Limited’ (later Air Service Training) where it was used for aircrew training and various military contracts.

In 1962 it was sold to the ‘Rapid Flying Group Limited’ at Baginton airport, Coventry. After failing to acquire a new certificate of airworthiness in mid 1965, it was destined to become a children’s playground attraction. Thankfully G-AIKR escaped this fate and was purchased by the Canadian War Museum (now the Canada Aviation Museum) and was shipped to Canada and placed in storage at the museum.

In late 2000 the Air Force Museum arranged for the long term loan of G-AIKR and the aircraft was shipped to New Zealand in consignments in 2001 and 2004.

The Restoration:

As the aircraft is primarily built of wood with plywood and fabric coverings, the restoration is being undertaken by the woodwork section of the restoration section. This aircraft will be restored as a MkI, as used by the RNZAF. This involves reversing the changes undertaken to make the aircraft into a Consul. The major changes are as follows:

Removal of all passenger seating and fore/aft cabin bulkheads.
Remove ‘Consul’ style cabin windows and replace with ‘Oxford’ type windows (built from original plans).
Reinstalling the bomb bays into the wing centre section (built from original plans).
Removal of the elongated nose/baggage section and reinstalling the Perspex bomb aimer’s nose section (from museum spares).
Reinstalling the turret fittings (built from original plans).
Reinstalling sundry aircraft systems and military fittings, e.g. Flare Chutes.

During restoration most of the original woodwork will be retained, along with the metal fasteners. These are refurbished as required and refitted to the aircraft. Any replacement fasteners are of the correct type and material for the era. Likewise, any wooden parts/structure that requires replacing will be of the correct grade of aircraft spruce and plywood. Repairs will follow authorised repair schemes for this type of aircraft/structure. Other fittings and systems will be repaired, or replaced from the museum’s stock of genuine Oxford parts. The finished artefact will be as historically complete as possible.

As PK286 has no RNZAF provenance, a paint scheme will be selected to accurately represent this prominent aircraft type in RNZAF service.”

Photographed at Wigram 5Jan2011. Given the earthquakes in the Christchurch area, work may not have progressed much since that time.

The Singapore Airlines one is ex-G-AJLR. After chasing it as far a Singapore, I discovered it is at Colin Smith’s workshops at Mandeville, NZ
It is/was expected to be restored as VR-SCD, but there seems to have been little progress and the airframe is currently described as ‘stored’.

Oxford/Consul G-AIKR ex-Canada is in the restoration workshops at the Air Force Museum, Wigram, New Zealand.

From their website:

“History of Oxford/Consul PK286/G-AIKR:

Manufactured at Portsmouth, England by ‘Airspeed Limited’, as an Oxford MkI, for the RAF PK286 saw little air force service and was sold back to Airspeed for conversion to civil ‘Consul’ standard in 1946. Registered as G-AIKR it was first leased to Chartair Limited (London) then purchased in 1947 by ‘Airwork Limited’ (later Air Service Training) where it was used for aircrew training and various military contracts.

In 1962 it was sold to the ‘Rapid Flying Group Limited’ at Baginton airport, Coventry. After failing to acquire a new certificate of airworthiness in mid 1965, it was destined to become a children’s playground attraction. Thankfully G-AIKR escaped this fate and was purchased by the Canadian War Museum (now the Canada Aviation Museum) and was shipped to Canada and placed in storage at the museum.

In late 2000 the Air Force Museum arranged for the long term loan of G-AIKR and the aircraft was shipped to New Zealand in consignments in 2001 and 2004.

The Restoration:

As the aircraft is primarily built of wood with plywood and fabric coverings, the restoration is being undertaken by the woodwork section of the restoration section. This aircraft will be restored as a MkI, as used by the RNZAF. This involves reversing the changes undertaken to make the aircraft into a Consul. The major changes are as follows:

Removal of all passenger seating and fore/aft cabin bulkheads.
Remove ‘Consul’ style cabin windows and replace with ‘Oxford’ type windows (built from original plans).
Reinstalling the bomb bays into the wing centre section (built from original plans).
Removal of the elongated nose/baggage section and reinstalling the Perspex bomb aimer’s nose section (from museum spares).
Reinstalling the turret fittings (built from original plans).
Reinstalling sundry aircraft systems and military fittings, e.g. Flare Chutes.

During restoration most of the original woodwork will be retained, along with the metal fasteners. These are refurbished as required and refitted to the aircraft. Any replacement fasteners are of the correct type and material for the era. Likewise, any wooden parts/structure that requires replacing will be of the correct grade of aircraft spruce and plywood. Repairs will follow authorised repair schemes for this type of aircraft/structure. Other fittings and systems will be repaired, or replaced from the museum’s stock of genuine Oxford parts. The finished artefact will be as historically complete as possible.

As PK286 has no RNZAF provenance, a paint scheme will be selected to accurately represent this prominent aircraft type in RNZAF service.”

Photographed at Wigram 5Jan2011. Given the earthquakes in the Christchurch area, work may not have progressed much since that time.

The Singapore Airlines one is ex-G-AJLR. After chasing it as far a Singapore, I discovered it is at Colin Smith’s workshops at Mandeville, NZ
It is/was expected to be restored as VR-SCD, but there seems to have been little progress and the airframe is currently described as ‘stored’.

Now in New Zealand

Canada’s Aviation Museum also has a Consul in their inventory.

Registration #: G-AIKR (UK)
Manufacturer: Airspeed Limited, England
Manufacture Date: 1945
Construction #: 4338
Aquisition Date: 1965

The museum example was converted from Oxford to Consul in 1946 and flew commercially with various owners until purchased by the Canadian War Museum in 1965

I believe this aircraft is now in the very capable hands of the restoration team at the R.N.Z.A.F museum at Wigram in Chrstchuch New Zealand. I’m not sure on the current status of the rebuild (returning it to A.S.10 oxford as standard). I’m also hopeful that the entire staff and complex came through the major earthquakes in the region unscathed.

Dave.

There are a pair of Consul wings in good condition with RAF markings, together with numerous spares lying in the Singapore Airlines simulator block at Changi airport.

Did SIA ever complete a rebuild or are these likely to be part of the process?

Howard R

Here in New Zealand there are two under restoration, one for staic display and one reportedly to fly:

One is at the RNZAF Museum in Christchurch, which is not an ex-RNZAF example but is instead a Canadian-sourced one, which is on long term loan from a Canadian Museum to the RNZAF. In fact only the wings and a few components are here so far, the fuselage is still in Canada awaiting transportation to NZ. This Canadian sourced plane began as an Oxford, became a Consul and is now being restored to static as an Oxford again.

Also being used in this restoration is many parts from various real RNZAF examples, especially NZ1289 which i think was recovered as a wreck from memory.

A more genuine RNZAF example is NZ1332, which was located in 1994 by Don Subritzky, a well-known Kiwi warbirds restorer, who found literally it in a barn (a dream come true!). Before that point it was thought the 299 RNZAF examples were basically extinct, but it seems that in 1947 a Mr Les Bergenson bought NZ1332, and he disassembled it and stored it away. Amazing but true – no-one knew about it. Only a few bits were missing, and the Subritkys are piecing it back together to fly apparently. It still has the original paint scheme and all.

There are a few pictures here http://www.warbirdsovernewzealand.com/Subritzky/Subritzky.htm as well as some of their other aircraft under restoration. It looks great.

There are other bits and pieces around, such as recovered parts of the wrecked NZ277 at a museum in Taranaki, NZ.

Imagine what else may still be stored away in barns and sheds hidden from the public. A few weeks ago I visited the famous John Smith collection where one individual has a Hudson, two P40’s, a P51D, a Mosquito, a Tiger Moth, about three Vampires and two Harvards all tucked away in one dusty, dark shed. All are disassembled to a certain extent except the Mossie which is pristine inside. An amazing collection. He’s well known in NZ aviation circles, but there may be some people who are not, like Mr Bergenson.

Cheers
Dave

Didn’t know Nevil Shute Norway was an Aussie. Learn something everyday. I knew he spent a fair bit of time in Australia after he became a full time novelist. Did he retire “back” there?

To clarify JDK’s post, IIRC, he wasn’t only the designer at Airpeed, he was the joint founder with Hessel Tiltman. They both left De Havillands to start the company. It’s in “Slide Rule” but I haven’t read it for years.

Ah, yes, thanks Mike.

Will forget own head next. how many in N.Z?

Hi,
The Australian born, British resident Nevil Shute Norway did work with Barnes Wallis, as a junior designer and they were friends as well. He started out with deHavilland’s, then joined left Vickers and was designer of Airspeed Ltd with A. Hessel Tiltman. He was the designer of most of Airspeeds aircraft. The Oxford was a military variant of the Airspeed Envoy. After the war, Airspeeds rebuilt Oxfords into (Civil) Consuls; very confusing! There is a very good website about him (http://www.nevilshute.org/) and his biography ‘Slide Rule’ is also an excellent read, and a great insight into the aero industry of the 30s in Britain and the difficulty of breaking the deHavilland monopoly. He also wrote ‘No Highway’ a fictional story of accident investigation of an airliner called the Reindeer.

He was I believed involved with the design of: the Airspeed AS4 Ferry; As5 Courier; Queen Wasp; Fleet Shadower and AS.45 Cambridge… (Just for you!)

The current issue of Mushroom Model Magazine has a feature on the Oxford (www.mmpbooks.biz) including plans.

There are no Oxboxes flying – the last airworthy one was, I believe, the ex Smith’s Aerospace (?) aircraft flown by the Skyfame Collection in the 60s. It’s now static at IWM Duxford. The RAF Museum Hendon has an excellently restored Oxbox as a ‘Batplane’ – it’s painted as a ‘Beam Approach Training’ flight aircraft – the forerunners to the blind landing devices – that’s what the yellow triangles on it are for. There is one (two?) in N.Z., a Consul in the Canadian Aviation Museum, and another was rebuilt by (IIRC) Singapore Airlines as a Consul after donation by the RAFM. This is all off the top of my head, so there may be errors…

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Wasn’t aware of Neville Shute’s involvement in the design of the Oxford although he was a key member of the team which built the R100 airship. I thought he was a Vickers man myself (as opposed to Airspeed, which became part of De Havilland).

His full name was Neville Shute Norway.

As far as I’m aware there are no flying Oxfords.

RE: Airspeed Oxford

Thats lovely and a nice contrast to armed camoflauged.

Whats the status of the South African one?

RE: Airspeed Oxford

Picture from Airliners.net of Singapore’s VR-SCD
Attachments: