The Aviation Historian — Issue 21 (October 2017)

18 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21

D

ESIGNED TO AESIGNED TO AESIGNED TO A 1934 Imperial Airways 1934 Imperial Airways

Ltd (IAL) specification for a large land-

plane airliner for the company’s European

and Eastern routes, the Armstrong Whit-

worth A.W.27 Ensign made its first flight

on January 24, 1938. In total, 14 examples were

built, the type entering IAL service on the Croy-

don—Paris route on October 20 the same year. The

last two examples, ordered by IAL on December

15, 1936, were completed as Ensign Mk IIs, the

new designation denoting the replacement of the

type’s original Armstrong Siddeley Tiger engines

with Wright GR-1820 Cyclones, deemed more

reliable, driving Hamilton 23E50 107 propellers.

Construction of the two Ensign Mk IIs had

slowed considerably after a decision to explore

their potential as lower components of a

“piggyback” Short Mayo-style arrangement in

1938, work on the pair picking up again only in

With war cur tailing the Armstrong Whitwor th Ensign’s career as

an Empire-route airliner, the type was put into camouflage and

sent to Africa and the Middle East to operate with BOAC as a

general transport. It has long been thought that at least one of

them was captured by the Germans, re-engined and put back

into service. The facts say otherwise, explains PHILIPPE RICCO

1940. As a result, the first Mk II, G-AFZU, named
      Everest, did not make its maiden flight until June
      20, 1941, followed by G-AFZV, named Enterprise,
      on October 28 the same year.
      Two Ensigns were lost during the Battle of
      France in the spring of 1940. The first, G-ADSZ,
      named Elysian, was destroyed on the ground
      on May 23 at Merville in northern France by
      Messerschmitt Bf 109s. The second, G-ADSX
      EttrickEttrickEttrick, was severely damaged on June 1 during , was severely damaged on June 1 during
      a bombing raid on Le Bourget, where it was
      abandoned. A third Ensign was lost in the UK,
      when G-ADTC Endymion was destroyed during
      a German air raid on Bristol’s Whitchurch airport
      on November 24 the same year.
      The remaining Ensign Mk Is were upgraded to
      Mk II standard, as a result of which the type was
      considered suitable for BOAC operations in the
      Middle East, and particularly on the vital supply

CONVENIENCE

FLAG OF

BELOW Bearing Air France’s distinctive winged seahorse logo on the forward fuselage ahead of the company’s

legend, as well as its name in French service, Nouakchott, on the nose, Ensign Mk II F-BAHD (not F-BAHO as

stated in some sources) is prepared for another flight at Agadir, Morocco, in 1942, before its withdrawal to France.

ALL IMAGES VIA AUTHOR