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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1128.PDF
JUNE IDJH, 1949 FLIGHT 7*3 PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER How "H. P." Founded the Fortunes of the Handley Page Company- Forty Years Ago TO appreciate what the foundation of an aircraftcompany meant in June of 1909, it is necessary torecall that Louis Bleriot had not yet flown the Channel; that was not to happen until more than a month later. In Great Britain the experimenters had mainly con- centrated on biplanes or triplanes (A. V. Koe made hops on a machine of the latter type) and, even several years later, the monoplane was to have a hard fight to win recognition. Mishaps were to occur which led to the type being "banned" for a time. When Mr. (now Sir Frederick) Handley Page founded his company on June 17th, 1909, Flight had already been THIS week the firm of Handley Page, Ltd., celebrates the ' fortieth anniversary of its founding by the pioneer pilot and designer whose name it bears. Everybody in British aviation to-day knows "H. P." and his proclivity for shooting well-barbed shafts of wit across dinner tables. Not so many know the story of his early endeavours, told on this page by one whose work brought him into frequent contact with them. The author is C. M. Poulsen, who recently retired from the Editorship of Flight and upon whom we hope to prevail, from time to time, to contribute other recollections of a lifetime in aviation. In our next issue a special feature will be devoted to a history of Handley Page aircraft. in existence for a little more than five months, the first number having appeared on January 2nd of that year. It could scarcely be argued that the times were pro- pitious, for the British Government of the day was very lukewarm about the potential usefulness of the flying • machine as a military weapon. Nor was this doubt con- fined to Government officials. When Mr. Stanley Spooner founded Flight, he received from Mr. Claude Johnson, then managing director of Rolls-Royce, a letter commend- ing him for his courage but stating in no uncertain terms that the venture was foredoomed to failure, "as flying can obviously never amount to anything more than a sport for the few rich." However, Mr. Spooner was not deterred by this or by many other expressions of doubt. Nor was " H. P.," as he was then always called, and still is by his friends. He formed his company and began to advertise in Flight. I do not remember what were the advertising rates in those days, but they were certainly very modest. Even so, at times they proved too much for H. P., and the advertising manager, Mr. Hawkins, more than once had to go to the little office in Victoria Street and argue with H. P., who would hold out as long as he could but would finally write a cheque for £5 "on account." From such slender begin- nings has grown the great Cricklewood firm. Here it should be recorded that H. P. believed in the monoplane. His earliest machines were of that type, and his great aim was to achieve what in those days we used to call inherent stability. In the Handley Page mono- planes, this stability was based on a crescent-shaped plan form with the tip trailing edges swept upwards so as to give a "wash-out" in incidence. My own knowledge of aerodynamics was of the sketchiest sort at that time, and it was to H. P. that I owed the first glimmerings of iinder- P 17 " H. P." in the cockpit of "The bluebird," circa 1909. standing of what he was driving at, and how his wing design was intended to work. I well remember that it was in the Hall shed at Hendon that H. P. gave his discourse on automatic stability, using as a living example the little monoplane which was later to become known as "The Yellow Peril "—owing to its colour scheme, and not because of any vices in its flying characteristics. That little monoplane did much flying at Hendon, and it was certainly stable. There is no doubt that H. P. had a more thorough understanding of the prin- ciples of flight than had many of his contemporaries. He was trained as an electrical engineer, and for a considerable time he lectured at the Northampton Polytechnic in Isling- ton. Perhaps that partly expalins how it was "that he was able to convey even to my untutored mind at least a hazy notion of how inherent stability could be achieved. To the modern generation it may appear almost un- believable that in those days few aircraft firms could or would supply general-arrangement drawings. It fell to me to do those which were published in Flight, and that meant going over the machines carefully with a long tape measure. "The Yellow Peril" was one of the machines which I had to tackle in this fashion. It was at Hendon, and while Max Millar was doing the detail sketches (published in Flight of October 26th, 1912) I was busy with my tape measure. Due to the plan form, with no straight lines in the wing, the task was a difficult one, but I had made up my mind to make a good job of it, for Mr. Spooner was a great believer in Handley Page's work, and had im- pressed me with the need to get a really accurate g.a. Subterfuge I spent most of the day doing the measuring, and towards evening H. P. came along to see how I was getting on. After studying the drawing for a few minutes, he said, "You have managed to get down an awful lot of dimen- sions." I explained that this was very necessary, owing to the difficult shape of the wing, but he thought the drawing looked too accurate and scored through many of the figures which I had so painstakingly acquired. I pleaded with him, but to no avail. " I am not going to give away too many and too accurate dimensions," he said. H. P. did not know at the time—and 1 do not think I have ever told him until now—that I had already realized that he might take a dim view of those dimensions: accordingly, while making the drawing I had a sheet of carbon paper underneath the drawing in my sketch book. When I saw H. P. approaching, I took the carbon paper out, and fortunately it did not occur to him to lift the top sheet to see what was underneath. Otherwise I should have been sunk! As it was, I think my g.a. drawing of "The Yellow Peril" was fairly accurate. There is now no way of finding out, for someone who should have known better had the aircraft burned a few years ago, and thus was lost a very remarkable and historic aircraft; I under- stand that the original drawings no longer exist. C. M. P.
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