Imperial Airways' Boxy Airliner - Armstrong Whitworth Argosy | Aircraft History #100

F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.

For those wondering why you see flying boxes and it seems like the next day there's these sleek cigars flying around it's because it wasn't until 1929 that Melvill Jones publishes his paper "The Streamline Airplane" , a seminal work that changed aircraft pretty much overnight. Aerodynamic drag was understood before this but Jones' paper established the massive benefits of streamlining.

Airlines back then: "we want you to be as comfortable as possible on this novel experience" Airlines now: "we want to remove the seats on our planes and charge you a fee for landing, extra if you survive the landing"

The literal Flying Brick

Genuinely blown away by the safety record of this one! Considering it was the 1920s and that it flew over sea, mountains and desert, it truly is an impressive achievement!

One thing I love with this channel is the covering of civil aviation.

II am always amazed by the number of details, photos, and diagrams that are still available. And the amount of research you do to dig-up it all up. Great job.

As a contrast, look at the Zeppelin Staaken E 20 of 1919! A four engine, all metal, streamlined monoplane!

The "City of Liverpool" disaster featured in a classic book of air mysteries by Ralph Barker, written in the 1960s. For all the years that have passed since then, it's still a great read.

Very interesting video. Love the fact that passengers can open the windows in flight.

I see "Armstrong Whitworth" or "Blackburn" and thats all i need to hear to know ill love it. Edit: i also suggest we name this one the "flying baby bottle"

I've always loved how haphazardly the center engine is just sort of bolted to the nose as with many other aircraft from this period.

Great to see some of the historical passenger services. That's a great safety record for the time.

Smoking probably caused the City of Liverpool 's demise.We tend to think only of all the lung cancer the smoking industry has caused but not about all the fires it's caused and resulting deaths!

An amazing video on a not well known but still amazing airliner! Can't wait for the follow up on the Handley Page H.P.42!

The way the front engine is just stuck on there like an afterthought…

Fun fact: Len Lye, a British film director, actually had made a film in 1938 advertising Imperial Airways, one year before the airliner company dissolved.

Rex, I genuinely love your work, but I’m genuinely concerned your pushing yourself too hard. I know you’re passionate about what you do, and great - as long as you’re taking care of yourself. Heck, maybe you’re fine, but your research is so thorough and accurate, and your presentations, videography, narration, and animations are so top notch, they simply must take an extraordinarily long time to produce. It’s that you’re cranking out so much content I (we actually, since I’ve seen similar comments) am worried you’re exhausting yourself. I hope things are going great, however, and I’m hoping you’re doing exactly what you were made for! You keep makin’ em, we’ll keep watching em. :)

Great addition! Please do the Empire Flying Boat!!!

Thank you for covering the history of commercial aircraft, which is often overlooked in favour of glamorous Spitfires and Lancaster’s