Handley Page Heyford

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HP.50 Heyford
Type heavy night bomber
Manufacturer Handley Page Aircraft
Maiden flight 21 June 1933
Introduced 1934
Number built 124

The Handley Page Heyford was a British biplane bomber of the 1930s. Although it had a short service life it equipped several squadrons of the RAF. It was the last Biplane heavy bomber to serve with the RAF.

Contents

[edit] Development

The Heyford was built to the same specification ( B.19/27) for a heavy night bomber, as the Fairey Hendon, a monoplane bomber and the Vickers Type 150. The prototype, the Handley Page H.P.38, was designed by Handley Page's lead designer G R Volkert, first flew on 12 June 1930 at Handley Page's factory at Radlett[1]. The aircraft structure was a mixture of fabric and metal, with the fuselage having both fabric covered structures and metal (duraluminum) monocoque sections. The Heyford had a novel configuration, with the fuselage attached to the upper wing and the bomb bay in the thickened centre lower wing. This allowed good defensive field of fire for gunners in nose and dorsal positions and in a ventral retractable 'dustbin'. The undercarriage was large spat covered wheels. The design allowed ground crews to attach bomb-loads safely while the engines were running, but the result was that the pilot was some 17 feet off the ground. The HP.38 proved successful during service trials at Martlesham Heath and with No. 10 Squadron RAF and was therefore chosen as the winner of the B19/27 competition, being ordered as the HP.50 Heyford.

[edit] Operational history

The Heyford I entered service with No. 99 Squadron RAF, at RAF Upper Heyford in November 1933, with further squadrons, No. 10 Squadron and 7 Squadron, re-equipping with the Heyford IA and II in August 1934 and April 1935 respectively[1]. As part of the RAF's Expansion scheme, orders were placed for 70 Heyford IIIs in 1936, with steam cooled Rolls-Royce Kestrel VI engines. The delivery of these aircraft allowed the RAF to have nine operational Heyford Squadrons by the end of 1936.[1]

These squadrons of Heyfords formed the major part of Bomber Command's night bomber strengh in the late 1930's. Heyfords flew many long night excercises, sometimes flying mock attacks against targets in France. Disaster struck on one of these long range excercises on 12 December 1936 when a flight of seven Heyfords of No. 102 Squadron RAF met fog and icy weather flying to their base at RAF Finningley, Yorkshire from Northern Ireland. Four crashed and two had to make forced landings resulting in 3 crewmen killed and 3 injured.[1]

The Heyford started to be replaced in 1937 with the arrival in service of Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys and Vickers Wellesleys [2], finally being retired from front line service in 1939, although some remained flying until 1940 as bombing and gunnery trainers, being declared obsolete in July 1939[3]. At least two were used for experiments, one for airborne radar and the other for inflight refuelling and it is reported that one was still flying as late as 1944.

[edit] Production

  • Mk I and Mk IA - 23
  • Mk II - 16
  • MK III- 70

For a total of 125.

[edit] Variants

  • Heyford I and Heyford IA
Engine support changes and wind driven generator.
  • Heyford II
Kestrel IV - derated
  • Heyford III
Kestrel IV - 650 hp

[edit] Operators

[edit] Specifications (Heyford I)

Data from British Aircraft Directory

General characteristics

  • Crew: 4 (pilot, Navigator/bomb-aimer/forward gunner, wireless operator/mid-upper gunner, rear-gunner
  • Length: 58 ft (17.68 m)
  • Wingspan: 75 ft (22.86 m)
  • Height: 17 ft 6 in (5.34 m)
  • Wing area: 1,470 ft² (136.6 m²)
  • Empty weight: 9,200 lb (4182 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 16,900 lb (7682 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2× Rolls-Royce Kestrel III-S (or III-S5) V-12, 575 hp (426 kW) each

Performance

Armament

  • Three Lewis guns (nose, dorsal and ventral 'dustbin' positions)
  • Bomb load: 2,000 lb

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Mason, Francis K (1994). The British Bomber since 1914. Putnam Aeronautical Books. ISBN 0 85177 861 5. 
  2. ^ Thetford, Owen (1957). Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918-57, 1st edition, London: Putnam. 
  3. ^ Donald, David (Editor) (1997). The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Aerospace Publishing. ISBN 1-85605-375-X. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Related content

 

 

Designation sequence

Handley Page Hare - Handley Page Hinaidi – – Handley Page Gugnunc - HP.38 - Handley Page H.P.42 (H.P.45) - Handley Page Heyford

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