Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft · United Kingdom · first flew 1930 · fighter

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16 was a British single-engine biplane fighter. It was a single-bay biplane with a metal structure and a clean, streamlined outline.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, nose-mounted
F — Fuselage	7.62 m fuselage
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Single-bay biplane with wings of unequal span braced by N-type interplane struts
Radial engine enclosed by a Townend ring
Fixed, undivided, spatted undercarriage

Look for an unequal-span single-bay biplane with N-type struts, a Townend-ringed radial and spatted fixed undercarriage. The pilot sits just aft of the upper wing trailing edge, and the fuselage is humped rather than Siskin-like.

Specifications

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16 has a length of 7.62 m (25 ft).
It has a wingspan of 10.06 m (33 ft).
Its maximum speed is 322 km/h (200 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

The first prototype flew in 1930 to meet Specification F9/26, but engine problems delayed it and the Hawker Nimrod was bought before the A.W.16 could be evaluated. A second prototype with a more reliable Panther IIA was submitted against Specification F7/30, by which time the type was considered out of date.

Variants

Both prototypes were modified for development work. The first was fitted experimentally with the three-row Armstrong Siddeley Hyena radial in 1933, which suffered cooling problems, and the second was rebuilt as the Armstrong Whitworth Scimitar.

Where you'll see it

Seventeen were ordered by the Chinese Guangxi Air Force, and they were later operated by the Chinese Nationalist Air Force.

Related aircraft

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