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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0055.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 January 1961 53 The First Handley Page Transports By PETER W. BROOKS BSc(Eng), ACGI, AFRAeS One of the four O/400s converted for civil use in 1919 THERE has always been a good deal of uncertainty about that pan ofthe early history of British transport aircraft development which con- cerns the O/400 transports produced by Handley Page Ltd in 1919-20and the origins of the famous W/8 series—the first H.P. aircraft designed from the start for transport purposes. The article is anattempt to rationalize the conflicting information available and to suggest what may have been the sequence of events in the developmentof these pioneer multi-engined airliners. TWO recent books, A. J. Jackson's British Civil Aircraft,1919-59 and R. Higham's Britain's Imperial Air Routes,1918-39, throw new light—and revive some old uncertainties —on the rather confused history of development of the firsttransport aeroplanes by Handley Page Ltd immediately after the end of the First World War. About 550 of the O/400 series of twin-engine bombers had beenbuilt during the war (probably more than of any other aeroplane with a loaded weight exceeding 10,0001b) and it was thereforenatural that Handley Page should give immediate attention to adopting their design to transport purposes. They had, in fact,produced before the end of the war two crudely converted O/400s which were used from April 1918 to return ferry pilots across theChannel from Marquise to Lympne. These transports simply had rudimentary seats for 12 passengers inside the bomber fuselage. During 1918 several O/400s were converted for passengertransport at Farnborough. In these aircraft the fuel tanks, which in the standard O/400 were mounted in the upper part of thecentral fuselage bay, were removed and replaced by long rect- angular tanks extending through to the bomb cell in the lower partof the fuselage. The tanks were covered by slatted seats for about 12 passengers. "Guardian Angel" parachutes were provided forthe passengers and a vertical polished hand-pole (as at a fire station) was provided to enable the aircraft to be abandoned byway of the bomb-bay opening which—as in the standard O/400— was normally kept covered with brown paper. Soon after the Armistice—on December 13, 1918—the RAFformed No 1 (Communications) Squadron at Hendon to carry passengers and despatches between London and Paris during thePeace Conference. The squadron was expanded into a wing in January 1919 and continued to operate until September. At leastthree O/400s—His Majesty's Air Liners Silver Queen, Silver Star and Great Britain—were converted into VIP transports for use onthis operation. In these aircraft an attempt was made to improve the comfort ofthe passengers: the seats were more comfortable, there was in- ternal trim to the passenger compartments, and windows wereprovided to give the passengers light and an outside view. For what they were, these conversions were quite effective, but theyserved to emphasize the unsuitable features of the O/400 fuselage when used for this purpose. The fuel tanks occupied a largeamount of space in the centre-section and the criss-cross wire bracing of the frames seriously obstructed the interior. SilverStar had its main passenger compartment aft of the tanks while Great Britain accommodated its passengers amidships, with newtanks apparently similar to those fitted in the Famborough conversions. The first civil transport of Handley Page was a further adaptionof the O/400 on similar lines to the two RAF aircraft. There were two passenger cabins, one forward and one aft of the fuel tanks,and seats for seven passengers. The forward cabin had two rectangular windows on each side and the aft cabin three. FourO/400s—G-EAAE, F, G and W—were converted to this new standard during the early months of 1919 and, on May 1, weregranted what were amongst the first Certificates of Airworthiness to be issued. Handley Page Ltd (and later Handley Page TransportLtd, formed on June 14, 1919 by Handley Page as an operating subsidiary) started proving-flying on various routes with theseaircraft from May 1, when the official ban on civil flying within the United Kingdom was finally lifted. A scheduled servicebetween Cricklewood and Bournemouth was operated during that summer, but scheduled airline services did not start on any scaleuntil after the ban on international civil flying was lifted on August 25. Strangely enough, the Chinese provided one of the first majorincentives for the development of large transport aircraft in this country. Both Vickers and Handley Page sent training missionsand aircraft to China in 1919 and both firms produced special transport aircraft for the purpose. Vickers developed the Vimy-Commercial out of their Vimy bomber—which, although too late for the war, achieved fame on several pioneering long-distanceflights—and Handley Page produced the O/700, or O/7 as it later became known. The Vimy-Commercial (which first flew inFebruary 1919) had an entirely new wooden monocoque fuselage of oval section, but the O/700 employed basically the same rect-angular-section wire-braced wooden framework fuselage with fabric covering as did the O/400. The only important differencewas that the wire-bracing of the frames in the centre portion was replaced by steel tubes arranged vee-fashion, thus facilitatingfore-and-aft movement in the cabin. At the same time, the fuel tanks were moved out of the fuselage and put back into the enginenacelles where they had been in the O/100, the original model of the O/400 series. The lengthened nacelles were supported by thesame arrangement of vee and inverted-vee interplane struts as the earlier aircraft. There were eight rectangular windows along eachside of the new cabin, in which eleven seats were arranged singly each side of a central aisle. Entry was by way of a door on theport side at the rear of the cabin. The first O/700—G-EAGN, which bore the earlier civil regis-tration K-162 and the "private" Handley Page marking HP-1— flew on July 5, 1919 and gained its C of A on August 8. Six ofthese aircraft apparently went to China soon afterwards. Two or three O/700s were also sent to South Africa and further deliveriesto China followed. G-EAAF, one of the original civil O/400s This O/700, G-EAAF, flew scheduled services in Europe and is believed to have been the first civil transport aeroplane to carry radio
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