3D model
Turn it over
A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-ALZO, c/n 5226, delivered to British European Airways in November 1952 as the Elizabethan ‘Christopher Marlowe’, flown by the Royal Jordanian Air Force as 108 from 1960 and by Dan-Air from 1963, making the last scheduled Ambassador service on 28 September 1971, stored at Lasham, taken to Duxford in 1986 and restored by the Duxford Aviation Society for display in April 2013, the only Ambassador left: Airspeed’s high-wing, pressurised short-haul airliner of 115 ft span, with triple fins, a tricycle undercarriage and two 2,625 hp Bristol Centaurus radials, shown standing level on its undercarriage as displayed in Dan-Air London colours: white upper fuselage and light grey below a broad red cheatline carrying the cabin windows, black radome and anti-glare panel, black ‘DAN-AIR LONDON’ titles and the compass-rose badge on both sides, black outer fins with red caps and the white ‘DAN-AIR’ logo, white ‘G-ALZO’ on red bands on the outer fins, a white centre fin, black, red and white nacelles, red spinners and black and white propellers with yellow tips (shape from the airwar.ru three-view, cross-checked against a second three-view, with the nose, paint and markings following photographs of G-ALZO at Duxford, 2012–2025). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (2.2 MB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight10 July 1947
- Built23
- Top speed312 mph
- EngineTwo Bristol Centaurus 661 eighteen-cylinder sleeve-valve radials, 2,625 hp each, driving four-bladed propellers
- Crew3 flight crew and up to 47 passengers in BEA service (60 in high-density layouts)
- Wingspan35.05 m
- Length24.69 m
- Height5.59 m
- In service23 built, 1947–1953; BEA’s ‘Elizabethan’ class, 1952–1958, then Dan-Air, BKS, Autair, Globe Air, Butler Air Transport, the Royal Jordanian Air Force and others until 1971; G-ALZO, the only survivor, at IWM Duxford
- RoleTwin-engined short- and medium-haul piston airliner
- MakerAirspeed Ltd, Christchurch, Britain
- UK collections1
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador 2 (1947) modelled here.
History
The Ambassador 2
Airspeed designed the AS.57 Ambassador at Portsmouth in answer to the Brabazon Committee’s wartime call for a modern short-haul airliner to replace the Douglas DC-3. It was a big, clean high-wing monoplane with a pressurised cabin, a tricycle undercarriage with a steerable nosewheel, and three fins and rudders on a high tailplane, powered by two Bristol Centaurus radials. The high wing gave every passenger a view below it and kept the engines well clear of the ground. The first prototype, G-AGUA, was flown by George Errington from Christchurch on 10 July 1947.
British European Airways ordered twenty in September 1947, but development was slow, and the first production aircraft did not fly until January 1951. BEA named them the ‘Elizabethan’ class after the new Queen and gave each the name of a figure of the first Elizabethan age, and the first scheduled service, Heathrow to Paris, ran on 13 March 1952. Quiet, roomy and fast for a piston airliner, it was popular with passengers, but it arrived only a year before the turboprop Vickers Viscount, which BEA bought in far larger numbers. Only 23 Ambassadors were built, and BEA flew its last Elizabethan service on 30 July 1958.
Its name is tied to the Munich air disaster. On 6 February 1958 G-ALZU ‘Lord Burghley’, chartered to bring Manchester United home from a European Cup tie in Belgrade, crashed on its third attempt to take off from slush-covered Munich-Riem after a refuelling stop; 23 of the 44 on board died, among them eight of the players. After BEA, the Ambassadors flew for independent airlines including Dan-Air, BKS Air Transport, Autair and Globe Air, as executive aircraft and engine testbeds, and with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, and Dan-Air flew the last of them until 1971.
This airframe
Airspeed Ambassador 2 G-ALZO
G-ALZO (c/n 5226) was delivered to BEA on 25 November 1952 as the Elizabethan ‘Christopher Marlowe’. It was badly damaged in a landing accident and rebuilt by BEA’s engineers, and in 1960 it went to the Royal Jordanian Air Force as a VIP transport and freighter, serial 108, with a rear cargo door fitted by Marshall of Cambridge. Dan-Air bought it in 1963 and flew it on passenger and freight work until 1971; on 28 September that year it flew the last scheduled service by an Ambassador, Jersey to Gatwick. Stored at Dan-Air’s Lasham base for fifteen years, it was offered to the Duxford Aviation Society in 1986 and taken to Duxford by road. Society volunteers rebuilt it, first in a temporary shelter, stripping the flight deck and cabin, and it was rolled out for display in the British Airliner Collection in April 2013. The model shows it as displayed, standing level on its tricycle undercarriage, in Dan-Air London colours: white upper fuselage and light grey below a broad red cheatline carrying the cabin windows, black radome and anti-glare panel, black ‘DAN-AIR LONDON’ titles and the compass-rose badge on both sides, black outer fins with red caps and the white ‘DAN-AIR’ logo, ‘G-ALZO’ in white on a red band on the outer fins, a white centre fin, black, red and white nacelles, red spinners, and black and white propellers with yellow tips. The shape follows the airwar.ru three-view, scaled to the published span and length and cross-checked against a second three-view, with the nose, paint and markings taken from photographs of G-ALZO at Duxford between 2012 and 2025.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the Ambassador 2 in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.