Armstrong Whitworth Ensign

what is it?

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign was a British four-engine monoplane airliner and the largest airliner built in Britain during the Interwar period. The British airline Imperial Airways requested tenders for a large monoplane airliner with four Armstrong Siddeley Tiger engines in 1934. Armstrong Whitworth designed the Ensign to seat up to 40 passengers for the airline's European and Asian routes while also carrying airmail.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 piston engines with propellers · 37.5 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 338 km/htop speed
• seats 40passengers
• size 29.9 tmax take-off weight
• built 14made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 88 years ago, in 1938.
• 🏎️Top speed is 2.6× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 37.5 m: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1938

introduced

1938

retired

1946

status

retired

number built

14

role

airliner

makers

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft

engines

4× Wright GR-1820-G102A / R-1820 / Armstrong Siddeley Tiger

crew

5

passengers

40

length

34.8 m

wingspan

37.5 m

height

7 m

max take-off weight

29.9 t

top speed

338 km/h

cruise speed

290 km/h

range

—

ceiling

7,315 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.