Background The origins of the Ambassador can be traced to 1943 and the work of the
Brabazon Committee, which sought to define what types of aircraft would be desired by the
postwar civil aviation sector. One of the committee's recommendations was a twin-engined short-to-medium-haul replacement for the
Douglas DC-3, known as the
Type 2. The British manufacturer
Airspeed Ltd. was interested in this requirement and established a small design team to work on the project from a dispersed office in Fairmile Manor at
Cobham in Surrey in 1943. This effort was headed by ex-
de Havilland aeronautical engineer Arthur Hagg, who had joined the company earlier that year. Work on the endeavour was taken as far as possible without impacting Airspeed's wartime production activity, as the
Second World War was still raging. In response to changes in planner's preferences, dictating that the interim aircraft be procured so that airliners such as the in-development Ambassador had more development time, thus the design was revised substantially to expand its capacity. By 1944, it was a considerably larger design than the DC-3, with improved comfort and space. While Airspeed's management believed that postwar demands would demand greater passenger capacities, several figures, including those within the
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the
Air Ministry, were less enthusiastic with their projections. The company also promoted the economics of higher utilisation rates and elevated cruise speeds, whereas conventional wisdom amongst airlines was to avoid increasing speeds to reduce fuel consumption. For the Ambassador, Airspeed opted to pursue a cruising altitude of 20,000 ft, relatively high for the era. Immediately following the end of the conflict, the British
Ministry of Aircraft Production placed an order with the company to produce a pair of
prototypes. On 22 November 1947, the programme received a setback when the prototype was forced to perform a
belly landing after the port
undercarriage leg failed to deploy due to a loss of
hydraulic pressure. This support was so impactful that, according to aviation author H. A. Taylor, rival aircraft manufacturer
Vickers was close to cancelling development of the
Viscount over fears that airlines held a preference for advanced piston-powered airliners over the unfamiliar turboprop. During flight testing, it was found that the aircraft possessed particularly favourable low speed characteristics. The first prototype performed the majority of flight testing through late 1948. A total of three prototypes were constructed for the test programme. The second Ambassador,
G-AKRD, was the first to feature pressurisation and was equipped with a full passenger cabin configuration for demonstration flights. During the latter stage of development, some issues were uncovered. Quantity production of the Ambassador commenced during 1950, leading to the first production standard aircraft, destined for BEA, performing its first flight on 12 January 1951. ==Design==