BKS       Airspeed Ambassador (Elizabethan) G-ALZR

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G-ALZR          Airspeed Ambassador (Elizabethan)   C/N 5214

Bought from Airspeed by Rolls Royce. Purchased by BKS and immediately converted as a horse freighter. Sold to Butler Air Australia on 18th October 1969

 Airspeed Ambassador G-ALRZ
g-alzr.jpg (31885 bytes) g-alzr-1.jpg (85110 bytes)
g-alzr-4.jpg (124822 bytes) On May 20 1963, Ambassador(G-ALZR) was delivered to Southend for conversion for use on the all-cargo services from London to the North East of England. This conversion involved the incorporation of a double door providing an overall aperture 7' 11" wide by 6' 6" high(See below), with a mean sill height of
3' 6". This Ambassador had been the Rolls Royce engine test bed for the Tyne turboprop, and B.K.S. Engineering first had to convert this aircraft back to Centaurus power in addition to its freight conversion. Eventually, it was decided that this aircraft would be converted to carry horses in order to replace the Bristol Freighter. This conversion was undertaken by B.K.S. Engineering at Southend, and on November 26 1964 this aircraft left Southend for Dublin to start flying services from there, after a conversion program lasting for eighteen months. The Ambassador's first work involved the carriage of race horses to Cambridge for the December sales at Newmarket. B.K.S.' Freighter was also used on these flights, which came to an end on December 8.
g-alzr-2.jpg (95473 bytes) g-alzr-3.jpg (153137 bytes)