Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16         A-2                              (c/n 722)

                           

                                  The A.W.16 was a private venture designed to meet the requirements of both N.21/26 and F.9/26.
                                  Two protoypes were built in 1931.  The one above is carrying the class B civil registration A-2.
                                  It was later G-ABKF and went to South Africa with the Alan Cobham circus.  The naval one was
                                  tested at Martlesham Heath with the serial S1591, and may be the one illustrated below (even though
                                  Armstrong Whitworth's inscription on the back of the photographic print indicated that it was an
                                  A.W.35 Scimitar!)   Both prototypes were initially powered by the supercharged 540 hp Armstrong
                                  Siddeley Panther IIIA engine with double Townend ring cowling, although the second prototype
                                  (above) was re-engined with a 565 hp Panther VII during the course of its trials at the A & AEE in
                                  1933.    17 production examples of the A.W.16 were destined for the Chinese Kwangsi Air Force,
                                  but only four or five were delivered.  I searched through my late father-in-law's scrapbooks for an
                                  illustration of one of these old biplanes but couldn't find one.     Some Kwangshi aircraft passed to
                                  the KMT controlled Chinese Air Force (in which my wife's father was an officer of some note) in
                                  1937 but he basically "didn't want to know" anything outside of  KMT controlled parameters! 
                                  In all it appears that some 18 A.W.16s were built., and, in addition to the Chinese examples
                                  mentioned above, a number were delivered to a Balkan air arm, and three to unidentified customers