Armstrong Whitworth A.W.55 Apollo
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Contents
Type Description
- A.W.55 Apollo
- (Initially named the Achilles and then the Avon before settling on Apollo) Low-wing cantilever monoplane civil transport to Specification 16/46, to meet the Brabazon Committee's Type II requirements, and featured a pressurised fuselage with three crew and seating for 26-31 passengers. The fuselage, which was of circular section with an internal diameter of 10ft 2in and a pressure differential of 5.5psi at 8.0000, was made Irom duralumin sheet with riveted z-section stringers and channel section frames. The wing was built up around a light and strong box-spar of two plate web girders, joined by the wing skins, these being stiffened between the webs by an internal corrugated skin riveted to the outer skin panels of the wing. Fuel was carried in six tanks, three in each wing, between the spar webs. Fowler flaps extended across the wing. inboard of the ailerons and the tailplane was set high on the fin to avoid wing turbulence. Due to the narrowness of the engines, there was no room in the nacelles for the main wheels of the retractable tricycle landing gear, which instead folded up into the centre section below the fuselage. The nosewheels retracted rearwards into a bay under the flight deck. It had a conventional tail unit with a mid-placed cantilever horizontal tailplane. Four 1,010 shp Armstrong Siddeley Mamba AS.1 powerplants.
| Specification | |||||||||
| Span | Length | Height | Wing Area | Empty Wt | Max AUW | Cruise Speed | Maximum Speed | Range | Service Ceiling |
| 92 ft | 71 ft 6 in | 26 ft | 986 sq ft | 30800 lb | 47000 lb | 276 mph/ 240 kn | 330 mph/ 287 kn | 940 mi | 28000 ft |
| 28.04 m | 21.79 m | 7.92 m | 91.6 m2 | 13971 kg | 21319 kg | 444 km/h | 531 km/h | 1513 km | 8534 m |
Projected Variants
- A.W.55 Apollo Mk.II
- Apollo fitted with Rolls-Royce Derwent jet engines.
- (none)
- As A.W.55 fitted with Rolls Royce Merlin 35 powerplants.
- (none)
- As A.W.55 fitted with Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp R-1830 powerplants.
Production Details
| C/n | Initial Registration |
Type | Notes |
| 2 aircraft ordered from Armstrong Whitworth, Baginton, to Contract 6/Acft/488. First flew 10 April 1949. | |||
| 3137 | G-AIYN | VX220 | VX220 later carried civil registration G-AIYN from September 1950, returning to VX220 in August 1962 |
| 3138 | G-AMCH | VX224 | VX224 allocated G-AMCH but never used. |
| Total Production 2 | |||
Production Summary
All Aircraft By Type
| Type | Built New | Conv | Canc'd | Total |
| A.W.55 Apollo | 2 | 2 | ||
| 2 | (0) | 0 |
Production References
- Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Since 1913, Oliver Tapper (Putnam, 1973)
- Air Britain Aviation World 2004/4 (Air-Britain Publications)
Page Revision History
Revised at Version 2.1.0- Added contract details.
- Added as new page.