HANDLEY
PAGE AIRCRAFT HANNIBAL HAMPDEN HALIFAX HASTINGS HERMES VICTOR JET STREAM
A PIONEER IN AVIATION ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPH SERIES
SOFTBOUND BOOK
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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace
manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909,
it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing
company. It went into voluntary liquidation and ceased to exist in 1970. The
company, based at Radlett Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, was noted for its
pioneering role in aviation history and for producing heavy bombers and large
airliners.
Frederick Handley Page first experimented with and
built several biplanes and monoplanes at premises in Woolwich, Fambridge and
Barking Creek. His company, founded on 17 June 1909, became the first British
public company to build aircraft.
In 1912, Handley Page established an aircraft
factory at Cricklewood after moving from Barking. Aircraft were built there,
and flown from the company's adjacent airfield known as Cricklewood Aerodrome,
which was later used by Handley Page Transport. The factory was later sold off
to Oswald Stoll and converted into Britain's largest film studios, Cricklewood
Studios.
During the First World War, Handley Page produced
a series of heavy bombers for the Royal Navy to bomb the German Zeppelin yards,
with the ultimate intent of bombing Berlin in revenge for the Zeppelin attacks
on London. Handley Page had been asked by the Admiralty to produce a
"bloody paralyser of an aeroplane". These aircraft included the O/100
of 1915, the O/400 of 1918 and the four-engined V/1500 with the range to reach
Berlin. The V/1500 had only just entered operational service as the war ended
in 1918.
The Handley Page factory at Radlett Aerodrome
employed women as part of the war effort, and was visited by royalty.
In early 1919, a Handley Page V/1500 aircraft,
dubbed Atlantic, was shipped to Newfoundland to attempt the world's first
non-stop Transatlantic flight;[3] only to be beaten by a Vickers Vimy piloted
by Alcock and Brown in June of that year. The Atlantic flew into New York City
via Canada on 9 October 1919, carrying the first airmail from Canada to the
United States of America.[4]
In the immediate postwar years, Handley Page
modified a number of O/400's to passenger use, which they flew on the
London-Paris route as Handley Page Transport. The V/1500 was considered too
large to be practical at the time, but a number of design features of the
V/1500 were later incorporated into an O/400 airframe to produce their first
dedicated passenger design, the W.8.
In 1924 Handley Page Transport merged with two
other regional airlines to create Imperial Airways, the UK's first national
airline service. Handley Page developed several large biplane airliners,
including the luxurious Handley Page H.P.42, for use on Imperial routes to
Africa and India.
Handley Page developed the Handley Page Slat (or
slot, see slats), an auxiliary airfoil mounted ahead and over the main wing,
which formed a narrow opening running along the leading edge of the wing to
improve airflow at high angles of attack.[5] The leading edge slat was
simultaneously designed by the German aerodynamicist Gustav Lachmann, who was
later employed by Handley Page. The design was so successful that licensing
fees to other companies was their main source of income in the early 1920s.
In 1929, Cricklewood Aerodrome was closed and
Handley Page moved aircraft final assembly to Radlett Aerodrome, where the
aircraft were then constructed. Manufacture of aircraft parts and
sub-assemblies at Cricklewood continued until 1964 when the site was sold to
become a trading estate.
With the Second World War looming, Handley Page
turned back to bomber design and produced the HP.52 Hampden, which took part in
the first British raid on Berlin. In response to a 1936 government request for
heavier, longer ranged aircraft, Handley Page tendered the HP.56 design powered
by twin Rolls-Royce Vultures and this was ordered, along with what became the
Avro Manchester. However the Vulture proved so troublesome that years before
the engine was abandoned by Rolls-Royce in 1940 the Air Staff decided that
the HP.56 should be fitted with four engines instead. Therefore, before
reaching prototype stage, the HP.56 design was reworked into the four-engined
HP.57 Halifax.[6] The Halifax became the second most-prolific British heavy
bomber of the war after the Avro Lancaster (itself essentially a four-engine
development of the Manchester). Although in some respects (such as crew
survivability) better than the Lancaster, the Halifax suffered in terms of
altitude performance[7] and was redeployed toward the end of the war as a heavy
transport and glider tug, with several variants being specifically built as
such, including the HP.70 Halton.
After the war, the British Government sought
tenders for jet bombers to carry the nation's nuclear deterrent. The three
types produced were known as the V-Bombers, and Handley Page's contribution was
the HP.80 Victor, a four-engined, crescent-winged design. This aircraft
remained in service (as a tanker aircraft) well beyond the demise of the company
which created it.
In 1947 Handley Page bought some of the assets of
the bankrupt Miles Aircraft company. These assets include existing designs,
tools and jigs, most notably for the Miles M.52 supersonic research aircraft,
and the Miles site at Woodley, near Reading. The operation was named Handley
Page (Reading) Ltd, a company constituted to buy and operate the assets formed
out of the inactive Handley Page Transport Ltd. The most significant of the
inherited designs became the Herald airliner. Designs from the Reading site
used the initials HPR ("Handley Page (Reading)").
Unlike other large British aircraft manufacturers,
Handley Page resisted the government's pressure to merge into larger entities.
By the late 1960s, the British aviation industry was dominated by two
companies: Hawker Siddeley and the British Aircraft Corporation.
Unable to compete for government orders or build
large commercial aircraft, Handley Page produced its final notable Handley Page
design, the Jetstream. This was a small turboprop-powered commuter aircraft,
with a pressurised cabin and a passenger capacity of 12 to 18. It was designed
primarily for the United States "feederliner" market.
Although successful, the Jetstream was too late to
save Handley Page, and the company went into voluntary liquidation in March
1970 and was wound up after 61 years trading under the same name. The Jetstream
lived on, the design being purchased and produced by Scottish Aviation at
Prestwick, continuing after the company was bought by British Aerospace in
1977.
Type A / HP.1 monoplane (1910)
Type B / HP.2 biplane
Type D / HP.4 monoplane (1911)
Type E / HP.5 monoplane
Type F / HP.6 monoplane
Type G / HP.7 biplane
Type L / HP.8 biplane never flew
Handley Page Type H (unbuilt monoplane project)
Handley Page Type K (unbuilt biplane project)
Handley Page Type M (unbuilt biplane project)
Handley Page Type N (unbuilt biplane project)
Handley Page Type P (unbuilt triplane project)
Handley Page HP.9 (unbuilt biplane project)
Handley Page HP.10 (unbuilt Scout project)
HP.14 - prototype naval reconnaissance
Type O twin-engined bomber
O/100 (HP.11)
O/400 (HP.12)
O/7 bomber
O/10 airliner
O/11 airliner
W/400 airliner
V/1500 / HP.15
Type W airliner
W8 / HP.18 / HP.26 Hamilton
W9 / HP.27 Hampstead
Type T / HP.19 Hanley
HP.20
Type S / HP.21
HP.22
HP.23
HP.24 Hyderabad
Type Ta / HP.25 Hendon
C/7 / HP.28 Handcross
Handley Page HP.29 (unbuilt transport project)
HP.31 Harrow
HP.32 Hamlet
HP.33 / HP.35 / HP.36 Hinaidi heavy bomber
HP.34 Hare
Handley Page HP.37 (unbuilt ship fighter project)
HP.38 / HP.50 Heyford biplane heavy bomber
HP.39 Gugnunc experimental biplane
Handley Page HP.40 (unbuilt biplane project)
Handley Page HP.41 (unbuilt torpedo biplane
project)
HP.42 biplane airliner
HP.43 three-engined biplane bomber transport
HP.45 biplane airliner
HP.46 - torpedo bomber
HP.47 - bomber, torpedo bomber
HP.51 prototype bomber transport
H.P.52 Hampden medium bomber
HP.53 bomber design for Sweden led to the
HP.52 Hereford
HP.54 Harrow monoplane heavy bomber
HP.55 two-engined heavy bomber design
HP.56 two-engined heavy bomber design
Halifax four-engined heavy bomber
HP.57 Halifax Mk.I
HP.58 Halifax Mk.II
HP.59 Halifax Mk.II Series
HP.61 Halifax Mk.III
HP.63 Halifax Mk.V / VI / VII
HP.70
Halifax Mk.VIII
Halton airliner
HP.65 - design for developed Halifax with new low
drag 113 ft wing, turbo supercharged Hercules engine.[8]
HP.66 - design for developed Halifax ordered to
specification B.27/43, provisionally called Hastings B.I, abandoned after end
of war.
HP.69 - design for developed Halifax with
turbo-blower exhaust Hercules 100, provisionally called Hastings Mark II.
Prototype ordered but shelved 1944[9]
HP.71 Halifax Mk.IX
HP.67 Hastings military transport
Handley Page Hermes airliner
HP.68 Hermes I
HP.74 Hermes II
HP.81 Hermes IV
HP.82 Hermes V
HP.75 Manx tailless research aircraft
Handley Page HP.76 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
Handley Page HP.77 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
Handley Page HP.78 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
HP.80 Victor four-engined bomber
Handley Page HP.83 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
Handley Page HP.84 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
Handley Page HP.85 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
Handley Page HP.86 (unbuilt civil transport
project)
HP.88 Victor research aircraft
Handley Page HP.99 (unbuilt bomber project)
HP.100 reconnaissance bomber to OR.330
Handley Page HP.102 (unbuilt airliner project)
Handley Page HP.105 (unbuilt transport project)
Handley Page HP.107 (unbuilt bomber project)
Handley Page HP.108 (unbuilt transport project)
Handley Page HP.109 (unbuilt transport project)
Handley Page HP.110 (unbuilt transport project)
Handley Page HP.112 (unbuilt Flying Jeep project)
Handley Page HP.113 (unbuilt transport project)
HP.115 delta winged research aircraft
Handley Page HP.116 (unbuilt freighter project)
Handley Page HP.117 (unbuilt airliner project)
Handley Page HP.118 (unbuilt VTOL Jeep project)
Handley Page HP.119 (unbuilt VTOL Jeep project)
Handley Page HP.120 (unbuilt VTOL Jeep project)
Handley Page HP.122 (unbuilt VTOL transport
project)
Handley Page HP.126 Aerobus (unbuilt airliner
project)
Handley Page HP.128 (unbuilt supersonic transport
project)
Handley Page HP.135 (unbuilt global transport
project)
HP.137 Jetstream twin-turboprop feederliner