How many Oxfords were built?

Short answer

A total of 8,751 Oxfords were completed. Airspeed built 4,411 at Portsmouth and a further 550 at its shadow factory in Christchurch; de Havilland delivered 1,515 at Hatfield, Percival 1,360 at Luton and Standard Motors 750 at Coventry. The first prototype flew on 19 June 1937.

Published: November 1, 2026 · Updated: November 1, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Airspeed OxfordMichael Gaylard from Horsham, UK (CC BY), vía commons

A twin-engined trainer derived from the Envoy

The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford was a twin-engined monoplane developed and manufactured by Airspeed. Its basic design came from the company's earlier AS.6 Envoy, a commercial passenger aircraft. The first prototype, L4534, made its first flight on 19 June 1937 from Portsmouth, flown by chief test pilot C. H. A. "Percy" Colman.

8,751 aircraft across five factories

By the end of production, 8,751 Oxfords had been completed. Airspeed built 4,411 at its Portsmouth factory and a further 550 at the shadow factory it operated in Christchurch, Dorset. De Havilland contributed 1,515 at Hatfield, Percival Aircraft 1,360 at Luton and Standard Motors 750 at Coventry.

Engines and role in pilot training

The Oxford normally carried two 340 hp (250 kW) air-cooled Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah X radial engines. The final variant switched to 450 hp (335 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-985 radials with Hamilton-Standard variable-pitch propellers. It was the preferred trainer of the Empire Air Training Scheme and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), and more than 2,900 aircraft were sent to Commonwealth countries.