AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 73 / 83

Plate 73 of 83 · Cold War · Kneeling rear-loading tactical freighter

Hawker Siddeley Andover E.3A

Andover E.3A, painted as XS639, the RAF Museum’s Hawker Siddeley Andover C.1 (c/n BN23), the rear-loading military development of the HS 748 with its upswept tail, loading ramp, kneeling main undercarriage and two Rolls-Royce Dart 201 turboprops on 14 ft 6 in propellers, built in 1967 for No. 46 Squadron, converted to E.3A in 1976 and flown by No. 115 Squadron on radar and TACAN checks and Falcons parachute drops, flown to Cosford in July 1994 and now at RAF Museum Midlands, painted in the No. 115 Squadron scheme it carries today: gloss white upper fuselage and light grey belly divided by a red cheatline round the nose, a red rear fuselage, fin and tailplane, red engine nacelles and spinners, light grey wings with red tips and black de-icing boots, Type D roundels on the rear fuselage, a small black ‘XS639’ ahead of the rear door, a red, white and blue fin flash, yellow rescue arrows on the nacelles and grey propeller blades with red and white tips.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XS639, the RAF Museum’s Hawker Siddeley Andover C.1 (c/n BN23), the rear-loading military development of the HS 748 with its upswept tail, loading ramp, kneeling main undercarriage and two Rolls-Royce Dart 201 turboprops on 14 ft 6 in propellers, built in 1967 for No. 46 Squadron, converted to E.3A in 1976 and flown by No. 115 Squadron on radar and TACAN checks and Falcons parachute drops, flown to Cosford in July 1994 and now at RAF Museum Midlands, painted in the No. 115 Squadron scheme it carries today: gloss white upper fuselage and light grey belly divided by a red cheatline round the nose, a red rear fuselage, fin and tailplane, red engine nacelles and spinners, light grey wings with red tips and black de-icing boots, Type D roundels on the rear fuselage, a small black ‘XS639’ ahead of the rear door, a red, white and blue fin flash, yellow rescue arrows on the nacelles and grey propeller blades with red and white tips. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.3 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Andover E.3A modelled here.

History

The Andover

The Andover grew out of the Avro 748, a short-haul airliner designed at Woodford in the late 1950s to replace the Dakota, with a low wing and two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops. When the RAF asked for a tactical freighter that could carry troops, vehicles and stores into short, rough strips, Hawker Siddeley, which had absorbed Avro, reworked the 748 rather than start again. The fuselage behind the wing was swept up to make room for a full-width loading ramp under a raised tail, the tailplane was given marked dihedral, the wing was lengthened at the root, and more powerful Darts were moved further out to swing bigger propellers. The 748MF prototype, converted from the original 748 airframe, first flew on 21 December 1963.

Its most unusual feature was the main undercarriage. Each leg could be shortened hydraulically, so the Andover could “kneel”, tilting its floor to match the height of a lorry bed or bringing the ramp down to the ground for vehicles to drive in. The first production Andover C.1, XS594, flew on 9 July 1965, and the RAF took 31. No. 46 Squadron received the first at Abingdon in 1966, and No. 52 Squadron flew them from Seletar in Singapore and No. 84 Squadron from Sharjah in the Gulf. Each could carry 52 troops, 40 paratroops or 24 stretchers. The RAF also bought six standard 748s as the Andover CC.2 for VIP and communications flying with No. 32 Squadron and The Queen’s Flight.

The transport squadrons gave up their Andovers in the mid-1970s defence cuts, as the Hercules took over, but the aircraft found new work. Several were converted to E.3 and E.3A standard for No. 115 Squadron, which checked the radio and radar aids at RAF airfields at home and abroad, others became C.1(PR) photographic aircraft, and a handful flew with the Empire Test Pilots’ School and the test squadrons at Boscombe Down, where the last were still flying in the 2010s. XS639 at RAF Museum Midlands is the type’s only complete example in a British museum.

This airframe

Andover E.3A XS639

XS639The airframe modelled

XS639, construction number BN23, was built at Woodford as an Andover C.1 and joined No. 46 Squadron in May 1967, moving with it to Thorney Island in 1970. After a spell with No. 32 Squadron it was stored at Kemble, and in 1976 it was converted to E.3A standard and joined No. 115 Squadron at Brize Norton that September. The E.3A lacked the full flight-inspection fit of the E.3, and XS639 flew as one of the squadron’s utility aircraft, carrying crews and equipment, checking airfield radar and TACAN beacons and dropping the RAF Falcons parachute team, moving with the squadron to Wyton and then Benson. It returned to No. 32 Squadron at Northolt in 1992 and made its last flight, to Cosford, on 13 July 1994, becoming 9241M. The model shows it as photographed there between 2014 and 2026, in No. 115 Squadron’s high-visibility scheme: a gloss white upper fuselage and light grey belly divided by a red cheatline round the nose, a red rear fuselage, fin and tailplane, red engine nacelles and spinners, light grey wings with red tips and black de-icing boots, Type D roundels on the rear fuselage, a small black “XS639” ahead of the rear door, a red, white and blue fin flash and yellow rescue arrows on the nacelles.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum Midlands

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Andover in 3 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 83 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.