Autair International
Airspeed Ambassador, G-ALZS Autair International 
model by Richard Osborne(see below); repainted by Gerry McLaughlin

EXTRACT FROM RICHARD OSBORNE'S TEXT FILE

The Airspeed Ambassador was designed at the end of the war as a large 
medium range airliner with twice the payload of a DC3.

The Ambassador used the Bristol Centaurus 18 cylinder engine. It was 
designed from the start with a pressurized cabin & with attention to 
aerodynamic efficiency.

The prototype flew in 1947. British European Airways ordered 20
Ambassador 2s. The first service to Paris was inaugurated on March 13,
1952. BEA called its fleet Elizabethans after the succession of Queen
Elizabeth 11; they were all named after figures in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth 1.

Thanks to Malcolm Lander, via Mike Johnson, I can list them. 

REGISTRATION G-		NAME
ALFR			Golden Hind
ALZN			Elizabethan (Flagship)
ALZO			Christopher Marlowe
ALZP			Sir Richard Grenville
ALZR			Sir Walter Raleigh
ALZS			William Shakespeare
ALZT			Sir John Hawkins
ALZU			Lord Burghley
ALZV			Earl of Leicester
ALZW			Sir Francis Walshingham
ALZX			Sir John Norris
ALZY			Sir Philip Sidney
ALZZ			Edmund Spenser
AMAA			Sir Francis Knollys
AMAB			Sir Francis Bacon
AMAC			Sir Robert Cecil
AMAD			Sir Francis Drake
AMAE			Earl of Essex
AMAF			Lord Howard of Effingham
AMAG			Sir Thomas Gresham
AMAH			Sir Christopher Hatton

Most of Europe was served by the end of 1952, the route network spread 
as far as North Africa. By 1956 the Vickers Viscount began to replace
the Elizabethan, the last scheduled flight by BEA was from Cologne in 
June 1958.

Mike Johnson in Melbourne is a goldmine of information, his father 
was an engineer with BEA. He writes:- One point was that they painted 
the safety tailwheel rubber white. After each flight, the wheel was 
inspected, and the pilot was apparently judged on whether or not the 
white paint had been scoured off. I do not know if it really counted 
towards promotions or anything, but it was noted, I am told.

end of extract

AUTAIR INTERNATIONAL

Autair International bought their aircraft in 1963, not from BEA, but from Globe Air of Switzerland. However, in September 1967 it was badly damaged in an aquaplaning accident at Luton, Bedfordshire and was deemed to be beyond repair. In 1970, Autair changed its name to Court Line and flew their magnificent pink, and yellow TriStars and BAC1-11s until August 1974, when they ceased operations.

CREDITS

This aircraft is a repaint of the wonderful model of the Elizabethan by Richard Osborne. It flies beautifully, and with Mike Hambly's Brabazon sound (Bristol Centaurus engines) and the ambassador panel available from WWW.Flightsim.com and elsewhere, will give you hours of pleasure. Visit the site at Heathrow Props 
(http://members.aol.com/pionair/) for more great airliners. 
Thanks also to Chuck Dome for TEXBMP which I used to repaint the plane, and to Microsoft for making this great Flight Simulator programme.


FLYING THE AMBASSADOR

take off at 110knots with 30deg flaps; stall speed is 95 knots. Dont use the tailwheel on rotation!

Install
Microsoft file aafconv98 must be fitted in order to use this aircraft.
The file is free & can be downloaded from Microsoft or flightsim.com

For fs98; 

Simply unzip this file and you should be able to slide the folder straight into your AIRCRAFT directory. You can fly right away, but get those sounds and panel for the full effect.
If you look inside the texture folder, you will see another folder called 'non-fs textures'. Inside that folder are three extra files(auta__.2af,auta__.3af and auta__.5af). These files are the same as the files already in the MAIN texture folder, except that the pale blue colour is slightly less brilliant. I think this is a better colour, but it is not one from the FS pallette. This means that, in a FEW instances, it will not show up correctly in 'Spot Plane' view, but will show as black. On my system, there is only one place in the World (Hong Kong) where this effect happens. In Europe and the UK there is no problem, so I use this alternative set of files myself. If you want to try them, just drag the three files out of their 'Non-FS textures' folder into the main texture folder, and when prompted, click 'yes' to over-write the other files. Try it out. If you dont like it, the simplest thing to do( if you haven't saved the original files somewhere), is to re-download the plane and start over again. The Non FS textures will definitely show up as black in the small preview that you see when you 'select a plane', but the proper 'spot plane' view should be OK.
If you dont understand all this, just ignore it and be happy with the plane as it is!
LEGAL STUFF

Nothing in this file will harm your computer, but by installing it, you accept the risk. Have fun with this plane, but dont try to sell it! Everything in the file is the copyright of Richard Osborne (except the PART of the paint scheme I have done, and thats my copyright)

Gerry McLaughlin
gmcl122@aol.com       1st June 2000
