Armstrong Whitworth Awana

The Armstrong Whitworth Awana was a British prototype troop transport built to Air Ministry Specification 5/20 of 1920, which asked for a twin-engined aircraft able to carry 25 fully equipped troops for 400 miles, land on rough ground, fold its wings and fly on one engine. It was one of the largest landplanes of its time, a four-bay staggered biplane with a box-like fuselage, a three-rudder biplane tail and two Napier Lion engines in streamlined cowlings between the wings. The troops entered through a hatch in the floor and sat on bus-style seats along a centre aisle, while the pilot and navigator sat in open cockpits above the nose. Petrol tanks slung under the floor fed header tanks on the upper wing through windmill-driven pumps. Two prototypes were ordered on 27 June 1921, and the first, J6897, flew on 28 June 1923. Trials at Martlesham Heath found its control on landing poor and its structure too flimsy, and the Vickers Victoria was chosen for production instead.