23 November 2011

30th November 1964

G-ALZP 60n 12w 1633 F110-130 59N 10w 1645

Decca Navigator Co, Airspeed Ambassador G-ALZP, returning from a spell in Iceland perhaps!

[Photo: at London, Gatwick on 21st October 1967; © Chris England]

Airspeed AS57 Ambassador 2 s/n 5213 was built in 1950. The aircraft was delivered in 1951 to B.E.A. as G-ALZP. In March 1960, the airliner was sold to the Royal Jordanian Air Force as 109 and in September 1960 transferred to Morocco where was used as the CN-MAK for the King of Morocco. In 1964, the CN-MAK was sold to Decca Navigator Co. Ltd. and used as a test-bed for their navigation equipment. In May 1968, during the Dutch Aero Fair Eelde, it was noted at the Groningen Airport Eelde in the Netherlands for several days. In 1971, the Ambassador G-AZLP was sold in New Zealand and registered ZK-DFC. The ZK-DFC was withdrawn from use and finally broken up in the UK in 1973.

1 comment:

  1. Following this posting, I spotted the following extract from an article by Tony Merton Jones in issue #106 of 'Propliner':-
    "Fitted out as an airborne demonstrator for the Decca flight navigation system, G-ALZP undertook many a European sales tour and on one notable occasion became the only Ambassador ever to cross the North Atlantic when on September 23, 1964 she departed from Gatwick en-route to Prestwick, Keflavik, Sonderstromfjord, Goose Bay and New York. Almost ten weeks were spent touring the United States, with the Ambassador returning to Gatwick on November 30 [The date of my log: Banterops] having given Americans their one and only sight of Airspeed's most elegant airliner"

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