AIRSPEED AS.57 AMBASSADOR

Titles: Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador No’s 1 and 2

The Airspeed Ambassador was designed to meet the specifications of the Brabrazon committee, a British government committee formed to consider the future of civil aviation after WW2. Their specifications failed to take into account the new gas turbine engines and the large number of surplus wartime transports which flooded the market.

In the event it was probably the latter which most affected the Ambassador, and only 23 examples of this very aesthetic aircraft were produced. These all went to British European Airlines (BEA) initially, which gave them the generic name “Elizabethan”, but their popularity decreased with the introduction of turboprop powered aircraft such as the Vickers Viscount, and they then drifted down to third-level airlines to serve out their remaining time. Two examples were re-engined with Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprop engines and used in simulated airline operations in preparation for the introduction of the Vickers Vanguard. One example was converted to use Napier Eland turboprop engines.

We offer two titles covering the beautiful Ambassador. The first title includes the manufacturer’s combined flight and maintenance manual plus a manufacturer’s detailed technical presentation and a manufacturer’s brochure. The second contains the BEA operating manual for the standard Ambassador (known by BEA as the Elizabethan), plus the flight manual for the two examples of Tyne turbo-prop powered Ambassadors used by BEA for trials, known as Tyne-Elizabethans, along with a BEA publicity leaflet and a detailed technical specification for the Ambassador fitted with Napier Eland turboprops. The files have been scanned from the original flight manuals and retain any colour pages. Each title is US$9.95.