Handley Page Type A

Last updated

Type A (HP.1) Bluebird
RoleExperimental monoplane
National originUnited Kingdom
Manufacturer Handley Page
Designer Frederick Handley Page
First flight1910
Number built1

The Handley Page Type A, sometimes called "Bluebird" and later designated HP.1, was the first powered aircraft designed and built by Frederick Handley Page. [1]

Contents

Development

Following success in 1909 with an experimental glider Handley Page designed and built a single-seat monoplane. [1] It was of wood construction with a tailskid landing gear, powered by a 20 hp (15 kW) Advance V-4 air-cooled engine . [1] It used a wing with a shape patented by José Weiss which was claimed to provide automatic lateral stability, so there were no ailerons or wing warping mechanisms. Weiss was also responsible for the design of its tractor propeller. The wings, fuselage and tail surfaces were covered with a blue-grey rubberised fabric, hence the nickname Bluebird. After the aircraft had been displayed at the second Olympia Aero Exhibition, Handley Page successfully made a few straight hops in the Bluebird on 26 May 1910, but crashed at the first attempt to make a turn. [1] [2] Handley Page improved the design to include lateral control via wing warping [2] and fitted a 25 hp (18.6 kW) Alvaston water-cooled flat-twin engine. [1] The rebuilt aircraft was designated Handley Page Type C but it refused to fly. Although work was completed on modifying the aircraft to take a 50 hp (37 kW) Isaacson radial engine it was abandoned in late 1910. [1] It ended its life as an instructional airframe at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute in Clerkenwell, where Handley Page was a lecturer. [3]

In 1924 the company retrospectively applied model numbers, the Type A became the HP.1 and the Type C the HP.3. [1]

Variants

Type A (HP.1)
Experimental monoplane powered by an Advance 4-cylinder engine, one built. [1]
Type C (HP.3)
Type A improved and fitted with an Alvaston flat-twin engine. [1]

Specifications

Data from Handley Page Aircraft since 1907 [4]

General characteristics

Performance

Related Research Articles

Handley Page

Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page 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.

Bristol Bombay

The Bristol Bombay was a British troop transport aircraft adaptable for use as a medium bomber flown by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War.

Handley Page Hermes

The Handley Page HP.81 Hermes was a British civilian airliner built by Handley Page in the 1940s and 1950s. Closely related to Handley Page's Hastings military transport, the Hermes was a low-wing monoplane powered by four piston engines. Twenty-nine were built, serving briefly with BOAC in the early 1950s and later with several charter airlines.

Handley Page Heyford

The Handley Page Heyford was a twin-engine British biplane bomber of the 1930s. Although it had a short service life, it equipped several squadrons of the RAF as one of the most important British bombers of the mid-1930s, and was the last biplane heavy bomber to serve with the RAF. The first aircraft of the type were deployed at RAF Upper Heyford, near Bicester in Oxfordshire.

Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow

The Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow was a British heavy bomber of the 1930s built by Handley Page and used by the Royal Air Force, being used for most of the Second World War as a transport. It was a twin-engine, high-wing monoplane with a fixed undercarriage.

Avro 500

The Avro Type E, Type 500, and Type 502 made up a family of early British military aircraft, regarded by Alliott Verdon Roe as his firm's first truly successful design. It was a forerunner of the Avro 504, one of the outstanding aircraft of the First World War.

Handley Page Hyderabad

The Handley Page H.P.24 Hyderabad was a British twin-engine biplane heavy bomber built by Handley Page which served with the Royal Air Force between 1925 and 1933. It was the last wooden heavy bomber to serve with the RAF.

Fieseler Fi 97

The Fieseler Fi 97 was a 1930s German four-seat cabin touring and competition monoplane aircraft designed and built by the German manufacturer Fieseler.

Handley Page Hanley

The Handley Page Hanley was a British torpedo bomber aircraft of the 1920s. A single-engine, single-seat biplane intended to operate from the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers, it was not successful, with only three aircraft being built.

Short Type 827

The Short Type 827 was a 1910s British two-seat reconnaissance floatplane. It was also known as the Short Admiralty Type 827.

The Handley Page HP.14, also designated Handley Page R/200 was a prototype British naval reconnaissance aircraft of World War I, capable of operating from the decks of the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers or as a floatplane. Only three were built, the Parnall Panther being preferred.

The Advance Motor Manufacturing Company was a British motorcycle and engine manufacturer established in 1905. As well as supplying aircraft engines to the pioneering monoplane developers, Advance engines were also used by Captain Robert Scott to power Antarctic snow sleds. After the end of the Second World War the company was sold to Sheepbridge Engineering and became a motor supplies organisation.

Handley Page Hamlet

The Handley Page HP.32 Hamlet was a British six-passenger monoplane transport designed and built by Handley Page. Only one was built to order of the Air Ministry, first flown with three-engines, later changed to two then back to three engines.

Handley Page Type S

The Handley Page Type S, or HPS-1 was a prototype British carrier-based fighter developed for the United States Navy in the early 1920s. A low-wing monoplane, it was unsuccessful, only two being built and flown.

Handley Page H.P.47

The Handley Page H.P.47 was a British single-engined low-wing monoplane built to an Air Ministry specification for a general-purpose bomber and torpedo bomber aircraft. Only one was built.

Handley Page Type D

The Handley Page Type D or H.P.4 was a single-seat, single-engined tractor monoplane, the first Handley Page design to fly for more than a few hops. Only one was built.

Handley Page Type E

The Handley Page Type E was a two-seat, single-engined monoplane intended as a demonstrator. Though only one was built, it flew successfully from 1912 to 1914, carrying several hundred passengers and flying several thousand miles.

Handley Page Type F

The Handley Page Type F was a two-seat, single-engined monoplane designed to compete for a War Office prize for a specified military machine in 1912. It crashed before the trials got under way and, although it flew well later, only one was built.

The Mersey Monoplane was a prototype two-seat British pusher configuration monoplane of the early 1910s. A single example was built and entered into the 1912 British Military Aeroplane Competition but crashed during the trials and was destroyed.

The Howard Wright 1909 Monoplane was the first of a series of tractor configuration monoplane aircraft built by Wright in England during 1909 and 1910. A variant, the Lascelles Ornis, was displayed at the 1910 Aero Show at Olympia in London.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Orbis 1985, p. 2059
  2. 1 2 Barnes 1976, pp.8, 50-2.
  3. ↑ Barnes 1976, p.9
  4. ↑ Barnes 1976, p.54.

Bibliography

  • Barnes, C.H. (1976). Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. London: Putnam. ISBN   0-370-00030-7.
  • The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.