Airspeed AS.11 "Metal Courier"

[Bailey]

In all the references that I've seen, the Airspeed AS.11 is given as "All-metal Courier project for the Canadian market".

1. Has anyone got any more details of the project, other than that stated above?

2. Can anybody speculate on what changes Airspeed would have made to the AS.5 Courier design to meet the project specification.

Regards Bailey.

3-view from Airspeed Aicraft since 1931, H.A.Taylor, Putnams.

 

[joncarrfarrelly]

In the land of supposition here, but, most likely it was a project to replace the wooden parts of the structure (wings: spruce and
three-ply box spars, girder-type ribs; centre & aft fuselage: spruce longerons and bulkheads, ply covering) with metal components.
It is also likely that it would have retained fabric covering on the wings, and possibly replaced the ply fuselage
covering with fabric, particularly if the whole fuselage structure was changed to steel tube and based on the
intended market. As to changes, in terms of appearance and general arrangement they would probably have
been minimal.

Something to bear in mind about the use of the term 'all-metal' when dealing with the structure of 1920s-30s projects,
it does not mean the same thing as 'metal-skinned'. The Wellington bomber was considered an all-metal aircraft, despite
being fabric covered.

Jon

 

[Bailey]

replace the wooden parts of the structure (wings: spruce and three-ply box spars, girder-type ribs; centre & aft fuselage: spruce longerons and bulkheads, ply covering) with metal components.
It is also likely that it would have retained fabric covering on the wings, and possibly replaced the ply fuselage covering with fabric, particularly if the whole fuselage structure was changed to steel tube and based on the intended market.

This is inline with my own thoughts, as at that time Airspeed had no experience of producing metal aircraft. I suspect that one of the reasons that this project may have failed to reach even the prototype stage would have been the cost of tooling up.

In terms of appearance changes and thinking of the Canadian market, I sort of had a floatplane version in mind, possibly with the Cheetah engine in a long cord cowling. Please see the drawing attached.(Sorry about the quality, not one of my best skills).

Regards Bailey.

 

[VictorXL188]

Following on from Bailey's supposition I came up with a full GA for a possible floatplane