The Airspeed AS.5 Courier was a British six-seat single-engined light aircraft that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Limited at Portsmouth. It has the distinction of being the first British aircraft fitted with a retractable undercarriage to go into quantity production. Initial development work on the Courier started in 1931, being envisioned as an advanced aircraft intended primarily for private owner-pilots. Its ambitious design, including its unorthodox undercarriage, attracted the attention of the British aviation pioneer, Sir Alan Cobham, who saw it as a suitable aircraft for demonstrating his airborne refuelling techniques for long distances flights. Following the order's confirmation in August 1932, a single prototype was constructed, performing its maiden flight on 10 April 1933. The Courier quickly proved itself to be a sound design as well as capable of laudable performance, encouraging Airspeed to commence quantity production months later. The Courier was primarily purchased by civilian customers, being used as an early airliner, racing aircraft and flying testbed. It was also used as a communications aircraft by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Only a single aircraft flew briefly in the postwar era. The Airspeed Courier was a wooden low-wing cantilever cabin monoplane, incorporating numerous advanced features for the era. One such novelty was its use of a retractable undercarriage; this was a patented innovation internally developed by Airspeed, to which the company would subsequently earn revenue from when it was adopted upon other aircraft such as the Airspeed Oxford. It was estimated that the additional weight of the mechanism for retracting and deploying the undercarriage amounted to 30lb, while an increase in cruising speed of 20 MPH was achieved via reduced drag. Actuation was performed by the pilot via a hand-driven hydraulic pump. According to Taylor, the undercarriage generated considerable attention amongst the aviation press early on. A total of 16 Couriers was built. For further details of the development, design, operation and variants, click here.
