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.
fireinthesky7@reddit
I never really how wonky the fuselage cross-section was, every other photo I've seen of this plane was either from the side, or directly below.
Dangerous-Salad-bowl@reddit
You have to wonder if it took both front and rear doors off, would it fly faster?
cat_prophecy@reddit
"We have C-130 at home"
erhue@reddit
there were a good 20 or so years in which the brits were the abslute masters of weird-looking planes
IndependenceStock417@reddit
If a bush plane and a 747 has a baby, this would be it
Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit
yep, looks like they took the fuselage of a 747 and then just added a wing to the upper portion of the fuselage
I_am_BrokenCog@reddit
A C-3147
Muschina@reddit
... and it had a few damaged chromosomes.
im-ba@reddit
It all happened that one night near Chernobyl
Fluffy_Muffins_415@reddit
It's a C-119 but weird looking and front loading
notrylan@reddit
Certainly one of the airplanes of all time. Winner of the award for having exceptionally short AND exceptionally tall landing gear.