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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1003.PDF
FLIGHT, Zl July 1956 149 ,«., m. '•» •4. " Handley Page's formula tor a modern branchliner, seen—symboiKalty—taking rough country in Hs stride. A Progress Report on Handley Page's Alvis-powered Branchliner BY the time these words are read the Handley Page Heraldmay well have been awarded its special-category C. of A.,an event which, although a routine matter in the develop- ment of a new airliner, is nevertheless always an occasion forsatisfaction to the manufacturer concerned, and an opportunity to assess progress. As will be seen on pages 157 and 158, full performance measure-ments have now been completed, and these provide the basis for performance guarantees to be offered. These guarantees wouldcover figures for cruising power, consumption, three- and four- engine climb, balanced field length for take-off, and take-off andlanding distances. Earlier performance figures and technical descriptions have been published in Flight of August 19, 1955,and in our "Commercial Aircraft" number of July 6, 1956. The second aircraft—pressurized, furnished and more fullyrepresentative of the production machines—is coming along according to programme (see picture on p. 169), and will be theaircraft demonstrated at the S.B.A.C. Display. It is scheduled to carry out tropical tests in Africa next April, and will probably &ethe aircraft allocated for intensive route trials next summer. It may be surmised that the airline most interested in carrying outthis work will be Air Kruise, the British independent which has ordered six Heralds for its services between theU.K. and theContinent. Air Kruise will, in the summer of 1958, receive first production deliveries of the 100 aircraft for which jigging andtooling is being laid down at Woodley; deliveries to the other air- lines which have so far stated their intention to purchase Heralds(Queensland, A.N.A., and Lloyd Aero Columbiano) will follow. Engineering development of the Herald has been moving apaceat Woodley, near Reading, the H.P. headquarters for Herald development and production. Much refinement of the systems Men behind the Herald: left to right, Mr. G. C. D. Russell, assistant managing director; G/C. R. C. M. Collard, sales manager; S/L. H G. Hazelden, chief test pilot; Mr. R. J. Doxies, chief aerodynomiast. H.P. Reading; Sir Frederick Handley Page; Mr. E. W. J. Gray, chef designer H.P. Reading; and Messrs. J. T. Wilkinson and E. W. Pixton, respectively works superintendent and manager, HJ>. Reading. has been achieved (particularly the electrics, which now have splitbusbar distribution), and two fuselages are respectively undergoing structural and pressure tests. Progress at Coventry with the AlvisLeonides Major engine is recorded on page 156. Of especial interest in the pages which follow is a route analysisfor the Herald (.p. 153). While basic performance figures measured to a standard set of conditions—such as those reproduced onpages 157 and 158—enable an academic assessment of an aircraft to be made, it is the route analysis which today sells a commercialaeroplane. Handley Page's are firm believers in the policy of "sitting down" with the operator and making a detailed assessmentof how the Herald fits into the routes out of which he makes his living. Forty-odd route analyses have to date been prepared, andit was particularly instructive to select one—for Aden Airways—to show the aircraft's commercial capabilities on a short-range, rough-country route, typical of those for which the Herald was designed.
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