It was hardly an auspicious start for Britain’s latest airliner. A partial re-design during development delayed its service entry by a year at a time when even more advanced equipment was on the way. Yet the Airspeed Ambassador was to form a vital element in the transformation of the state-owned British European Airways (BEA) into one of the world’s top carriers.
Like many other airliners of the 1940s and ‘50s the Ambassador was inspired by the work of the wartime Brabazon Committee – a far-sighted attempt to plan the new aircraft Britain’s airlines would need when peace returned.
It was hardly an auspicious start for Britain’s latest airliner. A partial re-design during development delayed its service entry by a year at a time when even more advanced equipment was on the way. Yet the Airspeed Ambassador was to form a vital element in the transformation of the state-owned British European Airways (BEA) into one of the world’s top carriers.
Like many other airliners of the 1940s and ‘50s the Ambassador was inspired by the work of the wartime Brabazon Committee – a far-sighted attempt to plan the new aircraft Britain’s airlines would need when peace returned.
One of the specifications formulated by the c…
