Airspeed Oxford and Consul

By William Harrison

With more than 8,750 built the Oxford was a well thought-out design that was based on their Airspeed Envoy, a similar shaped twin-engine executive air-craft that was used in the early 1930s but the more advanced design of the Oxford suited the military requirement for a three-seat training aircraft. The Oxford was a low-wing cantilever monoplane of advanced design and was produced for the training of pilots in handling modern, multi-engine bomber aircraft. Wooden construction was employed throughout making for a simpler design and easier repairs. Provision was made for instruction in pilot train-ing, aerial photography, navigation, aerial photography, and bombing train-ing. An Armstrong-Whitworth gun turret could be installed for training in aeri-al gunnery. After the War the Consul was conceived as a small airliner, chief-ly converted from ex-military Oxfords with more than 160 rebuilt. These quickly sold to potential airline operators and were eventually used in many countries, some changing hands four or five times. The Oxford and the Con-sul were relatively safe flying machines and with thousands of bomber pilots undertaking their flying training in the type it played a major part in the RAF’s war effort, and is widely regarded as a design the manufacturers could be proud of. This book is written by William Harrison with artwork by Sam Pear-son.