Transair Cargo Argosy in Shamattawa, Manitoba, circa 1975 - it looks even weirder on ice somehow!

Posted by JustAskingTA@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 18 comments

[-]

1nzguy@reddit

Safe Air in New Zealand had a few of them.. plus Bristol freighters, used to muck around on them in Christchurch airport, as a youngster, in late teens used to freight yacht masts from Auckland to Christchurch on the Argosy.. brilliant to have front and rear doors.. rego ZK-SAE is parked outside a cafe in Woodbourne… (old base of Safe Air… and still an Airforce base)

[-]

Pepysh@reddit

Whistling wheelbarrow!!@

[-]

waldo--pepper@reddit

Shamatawwa! Is now on the map having been finally mentioned on Reddit! Yay!

[-]

TacTurtle@reddit

Like an uglier C-119 Flying Box car had a drunken one-night with a C-130, then that lovechild ran off with a 747

[-]

KokoTheTalkingApe@reddit

Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy (Transair was just one operator). Twin boom tail in line with the wings, which is why it seems to end without a tail, like an ocean sunfish. Unusually for the time, it was designed specifically to be a freighter (but usuable for other things). It has cargo doors at both front and back. I imagine you could load and unload at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_AW.660_Argosy

Here's a better pic.

[-]

Brillica@reddit

Love child of a B-29 and the Seaduck.

[-]

JustAskingTA@reddit (OP)

Wow it really does feel like a sunfish. Thanks for the background info!

I wonder how useful it was as a bush plane. There's a few pics of it being used in the Canadian north, so it clearly could do at least ice runways, but the comments around a lot of the pics seem to imply it sucked to fly and work on.

[-]