iscover
Not the prettiest aircraft ever built but nevertheless a useful training and liaison vehicle for its time. The RAAF received a total of 391 Airspeed Oxfords beginning in 1940, with the type soldiering on till 1953. During their 13 year career with the RAAF Oxford retained its original RAF serials.
Reflections-Airspeed Oxford
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Airspeed Oxford
Commodore Norman Lee continues his series of articles on aircraft he flew during his service with the Fleet Air Arm.
After we had completed the Wirraway phase we moved onto the Oxford. . . This was a twin-engined training aircraft built mainly of wood and which first flew in 937. It had been designed and built by the British firm of Airspeed, the famous author, Neville Shute, having earlier designed Airspeed’s single engined Consul.
We were a fairly confident lot by the time we started this phase and had no doubts that we could hack it. We always flew two students to an instructor, but as the aircraft had no internal fittings you had to sit on the main spar when not under instruction. An amusing aspect of this was that although there were no navigational desks etc, there was a hole in the cabin floor for a drift sight. A test of your aviation skills was to pee out through the hole when the aircraft was under loading in a turn!
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