Armstrong Whitworth AW.16

[leyreynolds]

Does anyone have details of the AW16 operated in the early 1930's by Cobham's Aerial Circus please?

[AWFK10]

I don't know how much help this is to you but there's a rather murky photo of it in "Those Fabulous Flying Years", taken during Cobham's South African tour in 1932, from which it appears to be an overall dark colour - presumably red, as the book says it was nicknamed "Red Devil". It has a light-coloured cheatline high on the fuselage and lightish (silver?) struts and u/c legs. The registration G - ABKF is marked on the fuselage - the tone is too dark to be white. The aircraft was on loan from AW specifically for the South African tour and was flown by a company pilot; this was the only occasion on which it flew with Cobham's outfit. It suffered a bird strike during a display and the pilot had to make an emergency landing. There were also engine troubles which led to it being returned to the UK.

[TimK]

Do you mean details of the type, or details of its time with Cobham?

Flight magazine published a feature on the AW XVI in 1931, complete with 3-view, downloadable as a pdf file:

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1931/1931%20-%201129.html

The aircraft was developed into the AW35 Scimitar (different engine, lower nose decking, fin and rudder enlarged, smaller wheel spats but otherwise much the same). Modelbud do two 1/72 scale kits of the Scimitar:

http://www.modelbud.pl/en_US/searchquery/scimitar/1/phot/5?url=scimitar

I guess you've already googled it, looked at google images and seen the Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_A.W.16

[leyreynolds]

Thanks for the info' above. I'm specifically looking for colours/markings of the AW.16 used by Cobham and AWFK10's reply is a good start. I'm working on a 1/72 scale model and need to illustrate some aircraft for an article in our club mag'.

[Patrik]

Aeroplane Monthly April 1982 has a full article on AW 16, including a photo of G-ABKF (the plane Cobham loaned for his South African tour) dated January 8, 1933 - so exactly in the period in question. The photo is not of the best quality, however - with some imagination - you should be able to reconstruct the colour scheme. I can scan the article for you on Monday when I am in the office, my home printer/scanner is down since Christmas awaiting replacement after long years of loyal service. If you are interested send a PM to me with your email address.

[leyreynolds]

G'day Patrik,

Someone else has already sent me a copy of that photo' but thanks for the offer.

Ley