Airspeed Oxford
The Airspeed Oxford was a British twin-engine advanced trainer built by Airspeed Limited, developed from the company's Envoy airliner to Air Ministry Specification T.23/36. First flown on 19 June 1937, it became the Royal Air Force's first twin-engine monoplane advanced trainer and trained Commonwealth aircrews throughout the Second World War. Production is usually given as 8,751 aircraft, although the manufacturers' figures sum to 8,586 — a difference attributed to a cancelled Percival order. Oxfords also served as air ambulances, communications aircraft and radar calibration aircraft; the RAF withdrew its last in 1956, and 152 surplus aircraft were converted into the civil AS.65 Consul.
Why It Mattered
The Airspeed Oxford gave the Royal Air Force its first twin-engine monoplane advanced trainer, and it went on to train aircrew across Britain, Canada, Southern Rhodesia, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. It could prepare a complete crew on a single flight, training pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, gunners and radio operators together. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the British government chose the Oxford for the Empire Air Training Scheme. In Australia, Vintage Aviation News notes, the Oxford and the Avro Anson between them covered every part of the RAAF's initial multi-engine flight training for more than ten years. Its students knew it by the nickname "Ox-box".
Design Notes
The Oxford was a military development of Airspeed's Envoy airliner, designed to Air Ministry Specification T.23/36. It was a low-wing twin-engine cantilever monoplane whose semi-monocoque fuselage used spruce longerons and stiffeners under a plywood skin; the Air Force Museum of New Zealand describes the type as made of plywood and fabric. Power came from two Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah X radial engines of 340 hp. The first Oxfords were built for every kind of aircrew training, gunnery included, and carried an Armstrong Whitworth dorsal gun turret. The turret was removed from later versions, which were used mainly for pilot training, and the Mark II had dual controls in its place. The final variant, the Oxford V, changed to 450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-985 engines with Hamilton-Standard variable-pitch propellers.
Operational History
The prototype, L4534, first flew on 19 June 1937, and the type entered service with the Central Flying School that November. Production was divided among five factories: Airspeed built 4,411 at Portsmouth and another 550 at its Christchurch shadow factory, de Havilland built 1,515 at Hatfield, Percival 1,360 at Luton and Standard Motors 750 at Coventry. The completed total is usually given as 8,751, although the manufacturers' own production figures add up to 8,586; Taylor suggests the difference was 165 Oxfords ordered from Percival but cancelled before construction. At Empire Air Training Scheme schools the Oxford taught flying, navigation, aerial gunnery, radio work and bombing. Away from the schools it also served as an air ambulance, a communications aircraft and on ground radar calibration duties. Britain shipped 391 Oxfords to Australia, and the RNZAF operated 299 of the type between 1938 and 1954. After the war the Oxford found a second wind in Britain in 1951, when Flying Training Command expanded to train National Service pilots. The RAF's last Oxfords, by then flying as trainers and light transports, were withdrawn in 1956.
Afterlife
After the war, 152 surplus Oxfords were converted into the AS.65 Consul, a six-seat commercial airliner. Oxfords survive on static display at museums in several countries. The RAF Museum displays Oxford I MP425 at its London site. The Air Force Museum of New Zealand's Oxford, PK286, was built at Portsmouth in 1945 and converted into a Consul the following year; after two decades of civil flying it was purchased by the Canada Aviation Museum in 1965. Loaned back to New Zealand in 2000, it was restored to Oxford configuration in a project finished in 2016, after 14 years of work totalling some 34,000 hours; it was formally gifted to the museum in 2022, and is now on display in its Aircraft Hall. In Australia, the B-24 Liberator Restoration Fund at Werribee is building a full-sized replica Oxford, constructed to Airspeed drawings, to display alongside its Liberator.