After World
War I, British-built Handley Page O/400 bombers were supplied to China,
as Handley Page O/7s, and to the Handley Page Indo-Burmese Transport, for
use in India.(1) About ten additional Handley Page O/400 bombers were modified
for civilian use, by Handley Page Transport, as twelve-passenger Handley
Page O/10s and O/11s,(2) which included windows in the fuselage. These
photos, taken at Cricklewood Aerodrome, in London, may show one of these
airliners, with registration number G-EAAE and the Handley Page logo on
its nose, that was used on Handley Page Transport's London to Paris, France
route, which began on September 2, 1919.
(1) Page
791, Paul Eden and Soph Moeng, The Complete Encyclopedia of World
Aircraft, Barnes & Noble, New York, 2002.
(2) Page 791, Eden and Moeng.
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G-EAAE
was, previously, in British military service as Handley Page O/400 number
D8350 and received British Certificate of Airworthiness No. 3, in May 1919.(1)
It was also used to inaugurate Handley Page Transport's passenger service,
on May 1, 1919, when Lieutenant Colonel Sholto Douglas flew eleven passengers
from Cricklewood to Manchester.(2)
(1) Page 28, Alan Dowsett, Handley Page,
Tempus Publishing Limited, Gloucestershire, 1999.
(2) Page 29, Dowsett.
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Service
between London and Brussels began on September 23, 1919 and according to
a October 1919 timetable, flights were scheduled, by the airline, between
London and Paris, and between London and Brussels, Belgium, every Tuesday,
Thursday, and Saturday, at 11:00 a.m., and between Paris and London, and
Brussels and London, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 11:00 a.m.,
with arrival times of 2:00 p.m., on both routes. Tickets for these flights
were about 15 Pounds for a single trip and about 31 Pounds for a round
trip, and passengers were permitted to take 30 pounds of hand luggage,
free of charge. The crew, on these flights, consisted of a pilot and a
mechanic, and passengers could obtain a basket lunch, for their flight,
if they ordered it, in advance. In 1920, Handley Page Transport expanded
its service, with daily flights between London and Paris, and, in 1924,
it merged with other airlines to form Imperial Airways. In September 1923,
the Handley Page O/10s and O/11s were withdrawn from Handley Page Transport
service(1) and, in November 1929, Cricklewood Aerodrome closed, as passenger
operations moved to Radlett Aerodrome, in July 1930.
(1) page 29, Dowsett.
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HANDLEY
PAGE TRANSPORT
HANDLEY PAGE O/1500
CREW: 7.
ENGINES: Four 375-horsepower Rolls-Royce Eagle
VIII Vee-12 piston engines.
MAXIMUM SPEED: 99 mph (159.325 kmh).
SERVICE CEILING: 11,000 feet (3,352.8 meters).
WINGSPAN: 126 feet (38.4048 meters).
LENGTH: 64 feet (19.5072 meters).
HEIGHT: 23 feet (7.0104 meters).
MAXIMUM LOAD: 12,400 pounds (4,628.17 kilograms).
The internal bomb bay could carry thirty 250-pound (93.3099 kg) bombs or
thirty 230-pound (85.8451 kg) bombs, and two 1,650-pound (615.846 kg) bombs
could also be carried, externally.
ARMAMENT: Two .303 inch Lewis machine guns
in the nose, one or two .303 inch Lewis machine gun in the dorsal position,
two .303 inch Lewis machine gun in the ventral position, one or two .303
inch Lewis machine gun in the tail position.
PRODUCTION: The prototype was first flown,
by Captain Vernon Busby, on May 22, 1918, and crashed on its thirteenth
flight test, on June 8, 1918, when its engines stopped over Golders Green
and it went into a spin, killing Busby, though one of the six crewmembers,
Colonel Ogilvie, survived the crash.(1) Seven
Handley Page O/1500 (Type H.P.15) bombers, unofficially known as "Super
Handleys", were built during World War I, some of which first saw service
with the No. 166 Squadron, at Bircham Newton, Norfolk, in October 1918,
and the No. 167 Squadron. When these squadrons were disbanded, in 1919,
their Handley Page O/1500 bombers were transfered, on June 15, 1919, to
the No. 274 Squadron, which was to be based at Bircham Newton. After World
War I, 57 more Handley Page O/1500 bombers were built for the Royal Air
Force and one was used to bomb Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 24, 1919. One
Handley Page O/1500, number F7136, was used to test the aircraft's lifting
capability, on November 15, 1918, when it flew forty passengers, including
some women, on a thirty-three-minute flight over London and reached an
altitude of 6,500 feet.(2)
(1) Page 19, Dowsett.
(2) Page 24, Dowsett.
The Handley
Page O/1500 bomber, with four Rolls Royce Eagle VIII radial engines, was
the largest aircraft built by the Allies during World War I. This photo
shows the Handley Page O/1500 F7140 Bomber Atlantic in Mineola,
New York, in 1919. It had been prepared for a non-stop transatlantic flight,
from New Foundland, Canada, in June 1919.
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A photo,
taken on November 14, 1919, of the Handley Page O/1500 Bomber Atlantic,
which the American Railway Express Company used for an attempted cargo
flight that day, flown by British Major Herbert Brackley, from Washington,
District of Columbia, to Chicago, Illinois. It carried 1,100 pounds of
cargo, but was forced to abandon its flight in Ohio, after one of its engines
overheated, due to a broken radiator water line.
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A Handley
Page O/1500 bomber.
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The Handley
Page O/1500 bomber Old Carthusian, with serial number J1936, that
was used, by the Royal Air Force, to bomb Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 24,
1919. It had, earlier, in December 1918, been used for the first flight
from England to India, which was completed, in legs, in March 1919. The
crewmembers of this flight included pilots Major General A. C. S. MacLaren
and Captain Robert Halley, Brigadier General N. D. K. McEwan, and
flight engineer Arnold Pickles. Captain Halley was also a pilot on the
Kabul bombing mission.
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Another
photo of the Handley Page O/1500 bomber Old Carthusian.
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The Handley
Page W.8 (Type H.P.18) passenger airplane, shown in this photo, was based
on the design of the Handley Page O/400 bomber, and first flew on December
2, 1919, with two 450 horsepower Napier Lion IB W-type engines. The first
production version of this aircraft, which was designated the W.8b, used
Rolls Royce Eagle VIII radial engines, had a crew of two, and could carry
twelve passengers. Seven of these aircraft were produced, with three being
used by Handley Page Transport and four by the Belgian airline Sabena.
Other versions of this aircraft were the 1923 W.8c, with two EagleIX engines,
the W.8e (Type H.P.26), with two Siddeley Puma wing engines and one Eagle
IX nose engine, which were used by Sabena, the W.8f, with three engines,
one of which, the City of Washington, was used by Imperial Airways
and two others by Sabena, and the 1929 W.8g, with two Rolls-Royce F.XIIA
engines. Variants of this aircraft were the 14-passenger W.9a (Type H.P.27),
with three Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar radial engines that were produced
for Imperial Airways, and the two-engine W.10 (Type H.P.30), four of which
were produced, in 1926, for Imperial Airways.
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A Handley
Page W.8, at Cricklewood Aerodrome, in London.
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HANDLEY
PAGE W.8B
BRITISH
AIRCRAFT HANDLEY PAGE W.8
AVIATION
BUFFS HANDLEY PAGE W.8
HANDLEY
PAGE W8B W9 W10
SOURCES
Alan Dowsett, Handley Page, Tempus Publishing
Limited, Gloucestershire, 1999.
Paul Eden and Soph Moeng, The Complete
Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, Barnes & Noble, New York, 2002.
Edward Ludd, "Flight of the Atlantic", Air
Classics, Challenge Publications, Canoga Park, April 1985.
Michael
Sharpe, Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes, Friedman/Fairfax Publishers,
New York, 2000.
Year, Flight,
Year, Los Angeles, 1953.
ROY
NAGL
AEROPLANES!
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