Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 / HS.681

GTX

GTX

All hail the God of Frustration!!!
Staff member
Senior Member
Joined
15 April 2006
Messages
7,964
Reaction score
11,348
Website
beyondthesprues.com
Hi folks,

Does anyone have detailed information on the British contender (and winner I believe) for the NBMR. 4 VTOL tactical transport aircraft requirement - the Armstrong Whitworth Type 681? All I have are these pictures:

AW_681b.jpg

AW_681a.jpg


Regards,

Greg
 
In the next Air Enthusiast there will be an article on this topic ... to be published on June, 23rd !

Cheers, Deino
 
AW_681b.jpg



This is the Medway engined proposal.

AW_681a.jpg



This is the Pegasus engined proposal. Some variants were depicted with huge pods of lift engines suspended under each wing
 
Deino said:
In the next Air Enthusiast there will be an article on this topic ... to be published on June, 23rd !

Cheers, Deino
Click to expand...

Another Tony Buttler article?

His article on the military variants of the BAe 146 was the highlight of the November/December 2005 issue. Is Mr. Buttler planning a book on British transport aircraft?
 
Tinwing,

I think the BAe 146 article was not from Tony Buttler. Tony wrote the FX/VFX one in the same issue.
I found the BAe 146 article a bit poor (information was not well structured) and only a couple of versions were illustrated
Mr Buttler articles and books are always very well exposed and estructured...and you can find drawings for almost every design.

Thanks for the info, Deino...I'm going to order a copy right now
 
Project Cancelled has a good section on AW 681.

The Medway version was STOL only, in its basic form. It had two rear mounted thrust deflectors on each engine pod. In order to offer VTOL, Rolls-Royce suggested R.B.175 lift turbofans carried in two underwing pods with 9 engines in each pod.

Project Cancelled does have a drawing showing the R.B.175 installation, but not the Medway installation.
 
A.WW. 681

Long-range Stol military transport aircraft capable of development to
VTOL. Designed to spec. OR.351.
Shoulder wings and hight T tail.Fuselage upswept with loading doors
and ramp.

Four RR Medway RB 142 engines with vectored thrust nozzles.
Boundary- layer control with blown leading edges , flaps and ailerons.
Span: 40.84 m lenght: 31.75m height : 11.53m
max.payload:15.876 kg.Max range 7.725Km
Max cruising speed 0.71 above 7.620m

Cancelled: 2/1965


Several sources : most reliable - Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft
since 1913. Oliver Tapper
Putnam - UK
 
Is Mr. Buttler planning a book on British transport aircraft?
Click to expand...

I don't know if he is going to continue after its fighter and bomber series, but it would be fantastic to see US/Soviet/British/...Transport Secret Projects, and then ....Airliners/Trainers/ ::) ::)


Cheers,
Antonio
 
TinWing said:
Deino said:
In the next Air Enthusiast there will be an article on this topic ... to be published on June, 23rd !

Cheers, Deino
Click to expand...

Another Tony Buttler article?

His article on the military variants of the BAe 146 was the highlight of the November/December 2005 issue. Is Mr. Buttler planning a book on British transport aircraft?
Click to expand...


Hmm ... I don't think !

He's currently working on the first book of US secret projects to be finalised until mid September ... what's next ... I hope something on "Chinese" ;D

Cheers, Deino
 
Sentinel Chicken said:
Does anyone have any schematic illustrations of the Medway engine and how it differed from the Pegasus?
Click to expand...

The Medway was a Rolls Royce design, first unsuccessfully promoted in the late 50s and then revived unsuccessfuly before being abandonned in the mid-60s. The Spey was a scaled down Medway. The Medway proposed for the HS681 had a pair of thrust diverters.

The Pegasus was a Bristol-Siddeley design, with design elements based on both the Orpheus and Olympus. Confusingly, both the familar four poster Pegasus and a conventional straight-through Pegasus were proposed for the HS681.
 
That's what I've found in Derek Wood's "Project Cancelled" :
1 - The HS(AW) 681 with four RB.175, using deflectors and a rotating cascade
2 - The HS(AW) 681 with four Medways and 18 RB.162-64 lift engines
3 - The AW 682, a civil freighter development with four Pegasus without vectoring
4 - The HS.802, the last attempt to safe at leat some of the development work,
by mating the the 681 fuselage to the wing of the Comet 4 .
 

Attachments

  • HS681-1.jpg
    HS681-1.jpg
    55.7 KB · Views: 1,757
  • HS681-2.jpg
    HS681-2.jpg
    84.1 KB · Views: 660
  • 682.jpg
    682.jpg
    57 KB · Views: 617
  • HS802.jpg
    HS802.jpg
    57.8 KB · Views: 599
Jemiba said:
That's what I've found in Derek Wood's "Project Cancelled" :
1 - The HS(AW) 681 with four RB.175, using deflectors and a rotating cascade
2 - The HS(AW) 681 with four Medways and 18 RB.162-64 lift engines
3 - The AW 682, a civil freighter development with four Pegasus without vectoring
4 - The HS.802, the last attempt to safe at leat some of the development work,
by mating the the 681 fuselage to the wing of the Comet 4 .
Click to expand...

From what I've read, HS681-2.jpg would seem to indicate the most definitive configuration. It would seem that a selection between the Medway and Pegasus hadn't been made at the time of cancellation, although the RR engine seems to have been the favorite for commercial reasons.

It is also interesting to note that the earlier AW681 configurations have a broader, more upright tail than later proposals. I do have to wonder why the vertical tail became more swept and perhaps even a bit smaller in area?

The HS.802 was a final, rather sad "hail mary" attempt to salvage the project. The use of the Nimrod (HS.801) wing would seem to make sense from an industrial standpoint, but the reality was that any Comet derived wing was a poor choice for a STOL transport.
 
Deino said:
In the next Air Enthusiast there will be an article on this topic ... to be published on June, 23rd !

Cheers, Deino
Click to expand...

Deino

Just checked the Air Enthusiast website and its not one of Tonys but rather the VTOL specialist Mike Pryce (aka Harrier on What-if). Had a good look at the display models last Saturday at Midland Air Museum so now looking forward to the article :)

Cheers

Geoff
 
Are their any specifications for this around?
 
PMN1 said:
Are their any specifications for this around?
Click to expand...

There were some very limited specifications in Derek Wood's "Project Cancelled," Appendix 6, page 250.
 

Attachments

  • AP6250.gif
    AP6250.gif
    25.3 KB · Views: 596
All you ever wanted to know about the AW 681
(and much more) is now in

Air Enthusiast No.124 - July/August 2006.
 
lark said:
All you ever wanted to know about the AW 681
(and much more) is now in

Air Enthusiast No.124 - July/August 2006.
Click to expand...

Will the AS 681 article ever make it to print?

I thumbed through the July/August issue of Air Enthusiast at a newstand, and I didn't see anything about the AW 681?

It isn't in the September/October issue, either?
 
I've seen the article in Air Enthusiast. It was a beautiful article!

I can't remember which issue it was, but it was defintiely there!
 
overscan said:
I've seen the article in Air Enthusiast. It was a beautiful article!

I can't remember which issue it was, but it was defintiely there!
Click to expand...

Let's see, the July/August issue was the one with the Gannet on the cover? That was the issue I quickly thumbed through. I must have just overlooked the AW.681 article because I doubt that a low circulation magazine would have a separate printing for North America.

Did the article actually have any new line drawings or specifications?
 
Air Enthusiast July/August 2006 -- No.124

pages 10 to 17. Text by Michael J. Pryce.
Excellently written.Profusely illustrated.
There's even a cutaway drawing of the turboprop AW.680.
Highly recommended.
 
I've recently acquired a brochure
it covers S.T.O.L MILITARY TRANSPORT TO O.R 351 TYPE NO. AW 681,
published for hawker siddley aviation limited may 1961.

not sure what sort of interest this would be to anybody I'm thinking of selling it on.
may be eBay. but i have a few photo's if any body wants to mail me I'll send them on.

i've added some scanned pages from the brochure.
 
Yes Please

I'm currently building one in 1/72 scale so any information is always handy :)

Cheers

Geoff
 
Thank you very much! Fan-flap concept is a real beauty)
 
CXMech, I have posted slightly edited versions of your originals. Please see private message for details.
 

Attachments

  • img014.jpg
    img014.jpg
    74.1 KB · Views: 363
  • img013.jpg
    img013.jpg
    89.6 KB · Views: 543
  • img012.jpg
    img012.jpg
    97.4 KB · Views: 495
  • img011.jpg
    img011.jpg
    89.2 KB · Views: 592
  • img010.jpg
    img010.jpg
    64.1 KB · Views: 632
  • img009.jpg
    img009.jpg
    188 KB · Views: 617
  • img008.jpg
    img008.jpg
    105.4 KB · Views: 776
Image img010.jpg would seem to depict a concept that looks very much like a scaled up Argosy.
 
That the AW680 a steeping stone project from AW670 Argosey to AW681 Aldershot
 
Thorvic said:
That the AW680 a steeping stone project from AW670 Argosey to AW681 Aldershot
Click to expand...

I would assume that the AW680 was Tyne powered and had a somewhat earlier timescale. Was it originally conceived as a competitor for the strategic requirement that the Belfast eventually won?

The internal dimensions of the AW.681 have always been a mystery to me? It would seem as if this design had a somewhat larger fuselage diameter than the Transall or Hercules, but how close was it the earlier Belfast?

I have never been entirely clear on the specifications for the 681 project (wing area, etc) and I really do have to wonder how this early (1961!) proposal differed from the definitive design.
 
I've had a quick look through the brochure it states that the lifting engines considered are the Bristol Siddeley BS59/7, at 8,000lbs rating or alternatively Rolls Royce RB175 fan engines.
for the overall dimensions for the fuselage are length 105ft, max width 15ft 2".
 
as this brochure refers to 4 different a/c configurations, there are variations on the engines used.
it does refer to using 4 BS 53 engines with hawker P 1127 type nozzles, on the turbo-jet with deflected thrust and blown flaps(ref jpg's).
 
Farnborough, Sept.63, model 681 with Pegasus. Days after, ITP for RB.141. NBMR4, Do.31, was Pegasus on prototypes. MoA view that BSEL would not cope with BOl.593, BOl.22R, BS100, Pegasus for Do.31 and for 681, while RR was, well, empty, bar weird liftjets.
 
Have you considered donating the original document to the Midland Aviation Museum at Coventry? They have a number of Armstrong Whitworth exhibits including models of the AW 681, I'm sure this document would be well received there.
 
i'll drop them an email see if they are familiar with the brochure, i'll let u know what they say.
 
AW.681 models abound at the Midland Air Museum. Highly recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in the AW.681. Will post some details from brochure later.
 

Attachments

  • AW.681.jpg
    AW.681.jpg
    152.7 KB · Views: 610
3 view of AW 681 plus some design studies
 

Attachments

  • AW681-Brochure-23.jpg
    AW681-Brochure-23.jpg
    144.1 KB · Views: 333
  • AW681-Brochure-22.jpg
    AW681-Brochure-22.jpg
    130.9 KB · Views: 374
  • AW681-Brochure-21.jpg
    AW681-Brochure-21.jpg
    135.8 KB · Views: 470
  • AW681-Brochure-20.jpg
    AW681-Brochure-20.jpg
    130.5 KB · Views: 500
  • AW681-Brochure-9.jpg
    AW681-Brochure-9.jpg
    163.4 KB · Views: 585
Sentinel Chicken said:
Does anyone have any schematic illustrations of the Medway engine and how it differed from the Pegasus?
Click to expand...
The Flight archives have plenty of info on the Medway http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%202233.html
 
Jemiba said:
That's what I've found in Derek Wood's "Project Cancelled" :
1 - The HS(AW) 681 with four RB.175, using deflectors and a rotating cascade
2 - The HS(AW) 681 with four Medways and 18 RB.162-64 lift engines
3 - The AW 682, a civil freighter development with four Pegasus without vectoring
4 - The HS.802, the last attempt to safe at leat some of the development work,
by mating the the 681 fuselage to the wing of the Comet 4 .
Click to expand...

Hi,

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%200370.html
 

Attachments

  • OR.351.JPG
    OR.351.JPG
    63.9 KB · Views: 352

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom