The Armstrong-Whitworth Ensign in civil and RAF service

[Rheged]

Here we are, people, another orphan backstory that you may (should you wish) use, amend, ignore or deride as the fancy takes you.   I suppose that it has elements that might have fitted the LOGISTICS  group build but having thought of the story I just wanted to get it recorded and out of the way so that I can get on with the next one.

The Armstrong-Whitworth Ensign in civil and RAF service

Introduced into service by Imperial Airways in 1938, the Ensign was not an immediate success.  Problems with the undercarriage and insufficiently powerful Armstrong-Whitworth Tiger engines meant that the aircraft could not be utilised to its full potential.  Before the problems could be overcome the outbreak of war resulted in the Ensign fleet being utilised in a manner for which it had not been designed.  In the early days of the war, 4 Ensigns were lost and the remaining 8 re-engined and used by the newly formed BOAC on the Middle East to India route.

Following the arrival of British troops in Iceland in May 1940, some means of regular resupply and rapid communication was required.  As a stopgap measure, 16 Ensign mark 3 were ordered. Each airframe was fitted with a reasonably large freight door on the port side behind the wing,  a "glass nose" modification made to permit a degree of maritime reconnaissance  whilst flying between Prestwick and Iceland and most importantly of all the A_W Tiger engines were  replaced with the newly developed Bristol Hercules.  Finally, the Ensign had sufficiently powerful and reliable engines. The mark 3   Ensign was very much appreciated by its crew.  In the rush to get the airframes into service minimal changes had been made to the internal design and the civil aircraft kitchen and toilets had been installed.   24 Squadron RAF operated the Ensign until 1944; initially on the Prestwick-Iceland sector but after the USA  took over the defence of Iceland  in mid 1941, the Ensign fleet was modified with a flare chute and observation blisters and used purely as a maritime search aircraft. As an unarmed unit, the Ensign mark 3b could not take any offensive action against U boats sighted on the surface but could drop flares or smoke floats to mark their position. This usually forced the U boat to dive and thus much reduced their range and offensive capabilities against convoys within 500 miles of Prestwick.   The flare chute was later modified to permit dropping survival gear and inflatable rafts. One  Ensign was briefly attached to RAF Defford for experiments concerning air-sea search radar.  The roomy fuselage permitted the installation of the very bulky early radar equipment.

By the end of 1944,  the remaining 12 Ensign mark 3 aircraft were withdrawn from service. Four had been lost due to undercarriage collapse on landing.  Three of these were immediately cannibalised for useable parts at Prestwick, but the fourth  casualty had a different fate.  Returning from a short patrol to the west of Ireland, the pilot reported on approach to Prestwick that he had  been unable to lower the mainwheels. As a result, the aircraft was diverted to RAF Crosby on Eden  which was a much less busy airfield..  Having made a wheels-up landing with no injuries to the crew, the airframe was stripped of its engines by staff from the nearby 14 MU. The Ensign remained on the grass beside runway 06/24  for some weeks. Eventually, the wings and tail were scrapped and the remaining fuselage manoeuvred as a single unit to a location near the control tower.  The RAF ground crew at Crosby  installed mains power, water and plumbing and used the carcase of the aircraft as a crew rest-room.  After the airfield reverted to civil use in 1947, the ground crew rest room remained in use. In 1959, the Imperial War Museum offered to build a new ground crew room in return for the  nose area of the fuselage (up to a point just beyond the wing) being brought into their reserve stock.  After being shuffled around various museum storage areas the  Crosby Ensign fuselage is now held at Duxford, pending full restoration.

The 12 airworthy Ensigns were offered for sale in the great disposal of surplus military equipment immediately after the cessation of hostilities, and were bought by Fortress Air Services of  Gloucester, with a view to using them for air freight operations to the near continent.  Flown to  Staverton, Fortress Air  began a programme of renovation, using 2 aircraft as a source of spares.   Some cargo flights were undertaken in 1947 from Newcastle to Stockholm and Oslo but in 1948 the entire Fortress Air Services fleet was in use on the Berlin airlift.  The company had been experimenting with a cargo container on castors that would fit through the  Ensign freight door  and carry up to half a ton.  Seven such containers constituted a full load.  Whilst 3.5 tons was not a huge load, the castoring containers meant that  an Ensign could be unloaded in less than two minutes straight onto truck flatbeds.  Among the return cargoes carried in these containers were  tons of documents recovered from several sources within Berlin.  It was felt that should the airlift fail and the Soviet forces occupy all of the city, this archive material was better held well out of their reach.

 Three Ensigns were written off during the airlift; two due to undercarriage faults and one as a result of an overstressed wing  whilst avoiding a Soviet fighter on a return flight from RAF Gatow.    The landing of one of the Ensigns with undercarriage problems at RAF Hannover resulted in the pilot and co-pilot  both receiving a "King's Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air" due to the manner in which the landing was made in order not to block the runway. Despite a civil servant insisting that the award was illogical since the actions, although no doubt most meritorious, had actually happened on the ground , both airmen received their award from the King himself.

By the end of 1950, the remaining Ensign fleet was just about time expired and sold for scrap. Fortress Air Services replaced them with a small fleet of Bristol Freighters and the company itself was absorbed into Dan Air in 1958   

[PR19_Kit]

I like that, very much.

I've always liked the look of the Ensign, apart from those miniscule engines, and I wish someone would do a kit of it, even a vacform would be good.

[NARSES2]

An enjoyable read sir. I can just hear the civil servant insisting that the "King's Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air" was illogical. 

[jcf]

Nice idea. 

In RW terms, it would require some redesign/reinforcement of the engine mounts and attachment points as
the Hercules weighs half again as much as a Tiger; 1845 lbs. vs. 1,200 lbs. The CG would be changed by a
large amount requiring ballasting in the rear. The engine diameters are actually very close 52.5" vs. 50", so
visually there wouldn't be an obvious difference.

[PR19_Kit]

Easy, make the fuselage longer..................

Of course, you may need longer wings too, to make up for the extra weight of the longer fuselage.

[jcf]

Lengthening the aft fuselage on the AW.27 would be somewhat problematic, due to shape and sit. 

[McColm]

It's almost the same as a shoulder-winged Lockheed Constellation, to which I have tried but failed to build. So I will have another go maybe next year.

[jcf]

Welsh Models have done a vacuform Ensign in 1/144th (£30.99), listed on this page:
http://www.welshmodels.co.uk/yesteryear.html

Toshihiko Shimizu/One Man Model offers 3-D printed kits in 1/72nd ($95.00) and 1/48th ($200.00):
1/72 AW.27

1/48 AW.27

[PR19_Kit]

Lengthening the aft fuselage on the AW.27 would be somewhat problematic, due to shape and sit. 

Indeed, so lengthen it in the centre, as I did with a York fuselage to make the Avro Leeds

https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48091.msg894204#msg894204

[zenrat]

Looking at the three view drawing on the wkipaedia page it could definately do with longer wings.

[Scotaidh]

Lengthening the aft fuselage on the AW.27 would be somewhat problematic, due to shape and sit. 

Looking at the curve of the engine nacelles (which matches that of the fuselage O, so well) and how the radials rather brutally stop all that lovely curvaceousness leads me to want to install turboprops, as well as stretching the fuselage and wings.

Stretching the centre by about, oh - four windows-worth, I think - and the wings just enough to extend the wing-tips to an appropriately delicate narrowness ...

There's something about the shape of tail-wheeled aircraft that to me just feels "right".  'Course, I grew up around Cessna 180s and 185s so maybe that's it. 

[NARSES2]

Toshihiko Shimizu/One Man Model offers 3-D printed kits in 1/72nd ($95.00) and 1/48th ($200.00):
1/72 AW.27

$99 doesn't seem to bad a price for a 3D printed 1/72 kit, even at the current exchange rate 

[McColm]

Toshihiko Shimizu/One Man Model offers 3-D printed kits in 1/72nd ($95.00) and 1/48th ($200.00):
1/72 AW.27

$99 doesn't seem to bad a price for a 3D printed 1/72 kit, even at the current exchange rate 

Having attempted building the HS Andover AEW kit, it's very different from a normal plastic model more like resin kits crossed with the Mach2 set of instructions.

[PR19_Kit]

But to build a 'stretched Ensign' I'd need TWO of them.

Or one and a LOT of pretty thick styrene, having learned my lesson with the Leeds..............

[jcf]

Unlike the York, the Ensign doesn't have fuselage sections that are parallel on all faces. Sticking a plug in
the middle will be complex and it would need to be aft of the wing. Lengthening the fuselage while keeping
the curve of the belly would be tough, and just sticking in a square section "box" would look blah. 

The Ensign Mk.IIs had Wright Cyclone GR-1820-G102A engines, takeoff rating 1100 hp at 2350 rpm, cruise
rating 900/2300. Later spares problems, the engine had been discontinued, led to a proposal to replace them
with GR-1820-203A, t/o 1100/2500, cruise 950/2300. Both types weighed around 1,300 lbs.