Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy

The Armstrong Whitworth Argosy is a British four-engined turboprop freight aircraft, the last design Armstrong Whitworth produced before the firm was folded into Hawker Siddeley, whose group sold its products under the Hawker Siddeley name from 1963. The civil AW.650 and the military AW.660 were for practical purposes one design, powered by four Rolls-Royce Dart engines whose sound, together with the unusual pod and boom layout, earned it the nickname Whistling Wheelbarrow. The first Argosy flew on 8 January 1959, the American FAA certified the type in December 1960, and the military AW.660 first flew on 4 March 1961 with double the range and doors arranged for paratroop dropping. The RAF took 56 Argosy C.1 transports, withdrew them from transport missions in 1975 and from service in 1978, and the last civil Argosy retired in 1991.