Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy T.2 9Q-COA
(ex Royal Air Force) Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy T.2 9Q-COA Jason (msn 6791, ex XR136), of O.R.A.S. (Otrag Range Air Services) at East Midlands Airport, shortly before being scrapped. XR136 was first flown on 5 April 1963 and delivered to the RAF on 18 July 1963. When the T.2 programme was cancelled the completed XR136 conversion was sold to O.R.A.S. which provided air transport for the OTRAG rocket range in Zaire, hence the Zaire registration. OTRAG (German: Orbital Transport und Raketen AG, or Orbital Transport and Rockets, Inc.), was a German company based in Stuttgart, which in the late 1970s and early 1980s planned to develop an alternative propulsion system for rockets. After intense international pressure OTRAG was forced to re-locate to Libya, but had closed down by 1987. 9Q-COA was scrapped at East Midlands on 10 June 1981
