Handley Page [SEP] headquarters location
Radlett Aerodrome


Radlett Aerodrome was an airfield and aircraft manufacturing plant in Hertfordshire owned by Handley Page, where the company was headquartered. Part of the airfield is now the M25 between junctions 21 (A405) and 22 (A1081). The airfield was also known as RAF Radlett; No. 80 Wing RAF was based there. The Handley-Page works were situated on the east of the former A5, then a main road into London from the Midlands. The site is between the A5, to the west, and the Midland Main
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Handley Page Transport


Handley Page Transport Ltd was an airline company founded in 1919 by Frederick Handley Page in the new era of civil flying after the First World War. The first planes were a small number of Handley Page Type O/400 bombers modified for passenger use. These flew London-Paris. At a request from the Air Ministry the Handley Page Type W8 was later used for both Paris and Brussels. On 31 March 1924 the assets and operations of Handley Page Transport were merged with three other British airlines to found Imperial Airways. The company itself
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Handley Page


first national airline service. Handley Page developed several large biplane airliners, including the luxurious Handley Page H.P.42, for use on Imperial routes to Africa and India. Handley Page developed the Handley Page Slat (or slot, see slats), an auxiliary airfoil mounted ahead and over the main wing, which formed a narrow opening running along the leading edge of the wing to improve airflow at high angles of attack. The leading edge slat was simultaneously designed by the German aerodynamicist Gustav Lachmann, who was later employed by Handley Page.
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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. The H.P. 54 Harrow was the production version of the earlier Handley Page H.P.51 design, itself a monoplane conversion of the three-engined Handley Page H.P.43 biplane. The two monoplanes were both designed by Dr. G.V. Lachmann. Initially Handley Page intended to
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Handley Page Heyford


of carrying 1,546 lb (700 kg) of bombs and flying 920 miles at 115 mph (185 km/h). The specification resulted in a large number of proposals being submitted by the British aircraft industry, with designs by Fairey (the Fairey Hendon) and Vickers (the Type 150 and Type 163 being built) as well as Handley Page's design. The prototype, the Handley Page HP.38, was designed by Handley Page's lead designer G. R. Volkert and first flew on 12 June 1930 at Handley Page's
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Handley Page


The whole operation was Handley Page (Reading) Ltd, the company constituted to buy and operate the assets formed out of the legally alive but otherwise inactive Handley Page Transport Ltd. The most significant of the inherited designs was the Herald airliner. Designs coming out of the Reading site were shown by the initials HPR (from "Handley Page (Reading) Limited") Unlike other large British aircraft manufacturers, Handley Page resisted the government's pressure to merge into larger entities. By the late 1960s, the British aviation industry was dominated
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Frederick Handley Page


. Handley Page's bid was successful, and for £1M plus 50% of any profits the entire stock of more than 10,000 airframes, 30,000 engines and sundry spares (such as 1,000 tons of ball-bearings), was acquired by a newly formed company, the Aircraft Disposal Company. It in turn appointed Handley Page Ltd as its sole agent. The involvement with the Aircraft Disposal Company proved nearly disastrous for Handley Page: by April 1919 the value of £1 ordinary shares in Handley Page Ltd had dropped to
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Handley Page Type B


The Handley Page Type B was an unusual single-engined pusher biplane built by Handley Page at the commission of a Liverpool patent agent. Damaged before its first flight, Handley Page disowned it, but it was rebuilt and flew for a time in 1910 as the Planes Limited Biplane. Despite the company type letter and its retrospective designation as the H.P.2, the Type B biplane was only partly Handley Page's work. It was conceived by W.P. Thompson of Freshfield, near Formby in Lancashire, who had registered ideas of aircraft control
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Handley Page Hinaidi


The Handley Page Hinaidi was one of two twin-engine bombers built by Handley Page that served with the Royal Air Force between 1925 and 1935. The aircraft was developed from the Handley Page Hyderabad and named after Hinaidi, an RAF station in Iraq. In 1923, Handley Page designed and built a new heavy bomber based on its W.8 airliner, the Hyderabad. The Hyderabad was an all-wooden biplane powered by two Napier Lion engines. Forty-five were built, entering service from 1925. The Hinaidi was an improved
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Handley Page Type G


The Handley Page Type G was a two-seat British biplane, designed by Handley Page that first flew in 1913. Only one was built. The Type G was the first biplane wholly designed by Handley Page. In 1924 the early Handley Page types were give a retrospective design number and the Type G became the H.P.7. Its immediate precursors were monoplanes (Types D, E & F), all of which used a wing of very unusual planform, having a strongly curved leading edge together with a slightly swept and almost
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Handley Page H.P.20


Germany Gustav Lachmann had the same idea, though through a wish to avoid the dangers of stalling. Rather than going to litigation an agreement was reached in which Lachmann, working with Prandtl at the advanced Goettingen air tunnel acted as consultant to Handley Page. Lachmann heard about the Handley Page work when they modified a standard DH.9A with fixed slots and demonstrated it dramatically at the Handley Page airfield at Cricklewood on 21 October 1920. That machine was retrospectively designated the H.P.17. The first aircraft with pilot controllable slots, designed by Handley Page
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Frederick Handley Page


one shilling, and he was accused of having used £400,000 of the ADC's money to subsidise his various failed civil aviation projects. The same amount of money was owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland. The situation was saved by the RBS, which arranged for Handley Page to remain as managing director of Handley Page Ltd on condition that two seats on the board of directors were held by their nominees and two more by representatives of the ADC. This deal cost Handley Page £179,000 in royalties due to him from Handley
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Handley Page HP.88


The Handley Page HP.88 was a British research aircraft, built in the early 1950s for Handley Page to test the aerodynamics of the Victor crescent wing design, and was intended to be a scaled-down version of that aircraft. The single HP.88 aircraft was designed to Air Ministry Specification E.6/48 as an aerodynamic testbed for the proposed Handley Page Victor V-bomber. To save time and cost it was decided to base the fuselage on the Supermarine Attacker. This was then changed to the Supermarine Type 510 which had already been redesigned with
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Handley Page


by just two combines: Hawker Siddeley and the British Aircraft Corporation. Unable to compete for government orders or with large commercial aircraft, Handley Page produced its final notable Handley Page design, the Jetstream. This was a small turboprop-powered commuter aircraft, with a pressurised cabin and a passenger capacity of 12 to 18. It was designed primarily for the United States "feederliner" market. The Jetstream was too late to save Handley Page, and the company went into voluntary liquidation in March 1970 and was wound up after 61
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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. In 1924, the British Air Ministry issued Specification 23/24 for a three-engined six/seven-passenger charter airliner. Handley Page's design to meet this requirement, the Hamlet, was a high-wing three-engined monoplane with a conventional landing gear and room for
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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. The Type D was the third and last of Handley Page's early single-seat monoplanes (the Type B being a biplane). It was a close relative of the Type A, which crashed on its first turn, and the Type C which did not fly at all. Like them the Type D used the wing
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Handley Page Hermes


the RAF required a new transport to replace its Handley Page Halifax, for which Handley Page designed the very similar Handley Page Hastings. Unlike the tailwheel Hastings, the Hermes was planned to have a nosewheel undercarriage, although the first two prototypes used a tailwheel undercarriage, of which the first was an unpressurised "bare shell" and the second to be pressurised and fully equipped. It was intended to introduce the Hermes before the Hastings, but production was delayed after the first prototype (HP 68 Hermes 1), registered "G
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RAF Manston


. In the winter of 1915-1916 these early aircraft first began to use the open farmlands at Manston as a site for emergency landings. Thus was soon established the Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston. It was not long after this that the training school, set up originally to instruct pilots in the use of the new Handley Page bombers, was established, and so by the close of 1916 there were already two distinct units stationed at Manston, the Operational War Flight Command and the Handley Page Training School. Its location near the
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George Volkert


George Rudolph Volkert CBE FRAeS (4 July 1891 – 16 May 1978) was a British aircraft designer. He was born in Fulham. He studied at the Northampton Institute in London (now City University London). He joined Handley Page in 1912, becoming head of the design department, when only 21. He went to Japan in 1921 as part of the British Aviation Mission. In 1923 he became Chief Designer of Handley Page. Handley Page had its design department at Woodley, Berkshire. The Handley Page Hampden was designed
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Handley Page Halifax


Series production of the Halifax began at Handley Page's factory at Cricklewood and at English Electric's site in Samlesbury, Lancashire. In order to speed up production, Handley Page implemented several new manufacturing techniques, including two pioneering approaches: photo-lofting and split construction. In the latter capacity, each Halifax was built from various sub-assemblies. Surface panels were flush-riveted, although the application of the matt black night bomber camouflage probably negated its benefit. Handley Page built the assemblies and components at Cricklewood and the aircraft
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Handley Page


Handley Page Limited was founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909 as 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. Frederick Handley Page first experimented with and built several biplanes and monoplanes at premises in Woolwich, Fambridge and Barking Creek. His company, founded on 17 June 1909, became
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Handley Page


the first British public company to build aircraft. In 1912, Handley Page established an aircraft factory at Cricklewood after moving from Barking. Aircraft were built there, and flown from the company's adjacent airfield known as Cricklewood Aerodrome, which was later used by Handley Page Transport. The factory was later sold off to Oswald Stoll and converted into Britain's largest film studios, Cricklewood Studios. During the First World War, Handley Page produced a series of heavy bombers for the Royal Navy to bomb the German Zeppelin yards, with the
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Handley Page


from Canada to the United States of America. In the immediate postwar years, Handley Page modified a number of O/400's to passenger use, which they flew on the London-Paris route as Handley Page Transport. The V/1500 was considered too large to be practical at the time, but a number of design features of the V/1500 were later incorporated into an O/400 airframe to produce their first dedicated passenger design, the W.8. In 1924 Handley Page Transport merged with two other regional airlines to create Imperial Airways, the UK's
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Handley Page Type O


The Handley Page Type O was a biplane bomber used by Britain during the First World War. When built, the Type O was the largest aircraft that had been built in the UK and one of the largest in the world. There were two main variants, the Handley Page O/100 (H.P.11) and the Handley Page O/400 (H.P.12). The aircraft were used in France for tactical night attacks on targets in German-occupied France and Belgium and for strategic bombing of industrial and transport targets in the Rhineland. Some aircraft
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Radlett


Post-war the airfield was used for production of Handley Page Hastings transport aircraft and Handley Page Hermes airliners. The SBAC held air shows here in 1946 and 1947 which subsequently moved to Farnborough. The Handley Page Victor bomber prototype was built here, with the main runway being extended in 1952 to allow flight testing, and there is now a road on this site named in its honour next to a DPD depot. Handley Page went bankrupt in 1969 and the airfield closed in 1970. The 1948 Olympic Marathon went through Radlett.
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1920 Golders Green Handley Page O/400 crash


was a Handley Page O/400 registered "G-EAMA", a large seven-passenger twin-engined biplane airliner. It had been built by the Birmingham Carriage Company and delivered to the Royal Air Force as a bomber during the first world war. As war surplus, it was converted into a passenger configuration in 1919 by Handley Page and used by Handley Page Transport for passenger services. The aircraft departed from Cricklewood Aerodrome around mid-day with six passengers, mail and freight for Paris. The weather was misty and the
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Handley Page Hendon


The Handley Page Hendon was a British torpedo bomber of the 1920s. A two-seat development of Handley Page's earlier single-seat Hanley, the Hendon was a single-engine biplane. While six aircraft were purchased by the British Air Ministry for evaluation and trials purposes, no further production ensued and the Hendon did not enter squadron service. While the single-seat Handley Page Hanley had lost to the similar Blackburn Dart in fulfilling the requirements for a carrier-based torpedo bomber to equip Britain's Fleet Air Arm,
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ADC Aircraft


aero-engines, for the sum of £1,000,000 plus a 50% share of any profits. The Imperial and Foreign Corporation formed the Aircraft Disposal Company to sell the equipment and to take over the management of the storage organisation and the large aircraft depots throughout the country. The Handley Page Company were appointed sole managing and selling agents for ADC although problems with the financial arrangement soon put Handley Page at risk and the agreement was made in March 1921 between Handley Page Limited, Frederick Handley Page and ADC to stop ADC liquidating the
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Handley Page Basic Trainer


The Handley Page Basic Trainer (H.P.R.2) was a British training aircraft of the 1940s. It was a single-engine, low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. The H.P.R.2 was developed by Handley Page Reading Ltd as a basic trainer in response to Air Ministry Specification T16/48 for a trainer to replace the ageing Percival Prentice. The Basic Trainer first flew in May 1950. Testing showed it to be a trickier and less forgiving aircraft than the rival Percival P.56. Although Handley Page were confident that the H.P.R.2 could be
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Handley Page Type A


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. Following success in 1909 with an experimental glider Handley Page designed and built a single-seat monoplane. It was of wood construction with a tailskid landing gear, powered by a 20 hp (15 kW) Advance V-4 air-cooled engine . It used a wing with a shape patented by José Weiss which was claimed to provide automatic lateral stability, so there were no ailerons
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Handley Page H.P.43


The Handley Page H.P.43 was a three-engined biplane bomber-transport built to an Air Ministry specification. It did not fly well and the biplane configuration was out-dated at completion; the only one constructed was later turned into a monoplane and led to the Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow. In 1928 Imperial Airways issued two sets of tenders, one for a large four-engined airliner and the other for a smaller, three-engined one. The first led to the very successful Handley Page H.P.42 but the second type did
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Frederick Handley Page


Sir Frederick Handley Page, CBE, FRAeS (15 November 1885 – 21 April 1962) was an English industrialist who was a pioneer in the aircraft industry and became known as the father of the heavy bomber. His company Handley Page Limited was best known for its large aircraft such as the Handley Page 0/400 and Halifax bombers and the H.P.42 airliner. The latter was the flagship of the Imperial Airways fleet between the wars and remarkable at the time for having been involved in no passenger deaths. He is also known for his invention
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Frederick Handley Page


two men arrived at a mutually satisfactory arrangement, with the patents being shared and Lachmann accepting a post as a consultant for Handley Page. He was later to become the company's head of design and later director of research. The period immediately after World War I was a difficult one for the aviation industry, Handley Page Ltd being no exception. Companies had expanded hugely during the conflict: Handley Page had only 12 permanent staff at the outbreak of the war; by 1918 this had grown to over 5,000 Early in 1919 he
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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. The Hyderabad was a development of the Handley Page W.8 airliner, initially designated the W.8D, to meet Air Ministry Specification 31/22 for a replacement for the Vickers Vimy for the Royal Air Force. The Hyderabad was structurally similar to the W.8, and was an all-wooden, three-bay biplane powered
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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. The Hermes was built to meet the 1944 Air Ministry specification for a pressurised civil transport capable of carrying 34 first-class or 50 tourist-class passengers, at the same time as
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Handley Page Transport


remained dormant until reconstituted to take over Miles Aircraft in 1947 as Handley Page (Reading) Ltd Cricklewood Aerodrome was adjacent to the Handley Page factory in Cricklewood, which had been established in 1912. The airfield was used by the factory and the transport company. Initially though, Handley Page Transport used Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to embark or disembark passengers for customs clearance, as customs facilities were not provided at Cricklewood until 17 February 1920. The company inaugurated a London-Paris air service from Cricklewood Aerodrome in 1920. The aerodrome closed in
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Handley Page H.P.51


chord Townend cowlings. The aircraft was completed at Cricklewood, dismantled and taken to the newer Handley Page site at Radlett for its first flight on 8 May 1935, piloted by Major J.L.B.H. Cordes. The results were so encouraging that Handley Page decided to press ahead with a production-ready variant designated the H.P.54 (later known as the Harrow) and submit this to C.16/31 rather than the H.P.51. In the end, Handley Page did not enter the C.28/31 competition at all and the Harrow was ordered on an ad hoc specification (
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Frederick Handley Page


result was the Handley Page 0/100, first flown in December 1915 and the start of the Handley Page company's reputation for building large aircraft. During the war it was further developed into the 0/400 and 0/1500 bombers. In 1917 Handley Page and his aerodynamicist R.O. Bothwell started wind-tunnel experiments intended to combine the low drag of high aspect ratio wings with the delayed stall at high angles of attack of a low aspect ratio wing. The first attempts involved using a wing divided into separate square panels by slots running chordwise, but
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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. The Handley Page H.P.47 was the company's submission to Air Ministry specification G.4/31 which called for a single-engined general-purpose aircraft to replace the Vickers Vincent in its Imperial role, to act as a bomber flying from unprepared airstrips and to be a torpedo bomber in the Tropics, particularly Aden. Handley Page were awarded a contract for
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Handley Page Dart Herald


The Handley Page Dart Herald was a 1950s British turboprop passenger aircraft. In the mid-1950s Handley Page developed a new fast short-range regional airliner, intended to replace the venerable Douglas DC-3, particularly in third-world countries. The design, originally known as the HPR.3 Herald, emanated from the drawing office at Handley Page (Reading) Limited—the former Miles Aircraft factory site, which had developed an earlier airliner design, the Miles Marathon. The Herald was an extensive re-development of the original concept of the Marathon
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Handley Page Type W


The Handley Page W.8, W.9 and W.10 were British two- and three-engine medium-range biplane airliners designed and built by Handley Page. The W.8 (also known as the H.P.18) was the company's first purpose-built civil airliner although it was a development of the wartime Handley Page Type O/400 bomber via the O/7, O/10 and O/11 transports. It had an enclosed cabin for (in most versions) 12 passengers, along with two crew in an open cockpit, and has the distinction of being the world's
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Handley Page V/1500


The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers, intended to bomb Berlin from East Anglian airfields. The end of the war stopped the V/1500 being used against Germany, but a single aircraft was used to carry out the first flight from England to India, and later carried out a bombing raid on Kabul during the Third
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Handley Page H.P.51


The Handley Page H.P.51 was a monoplane conversion of the earlier, unsuccessful biplane bomber-transport aircraft, the Handley Page H.P.43. The Air Ministry ordered the production variant off the drawing board as the Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow bomber. When Air Ministry specification C.16/28 for a multi-engined bomber transport failed to produce a satisfactory replacement for the Vickers Victoria, the Ministry turned to monoplane designs. Specification C.26/31 called for a twin-engined monoplane capable of carrying 24 soldiers and their gear over a range of 920 ml (1,480 km)
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Handley Page H.P.46


The Handley Page H.P.46 was a two-seat, single-engined biplane built to an Air Ministry specification for a carrier-based torpedo bomber. With an advanced combination of high lift, slow flying controls it was beset by handling problems and made few flights. The Handley Page H.P.46 was built to Air Ministry specification M.1/30 for a carrier based torpedo bomber to replace the Blackburn Ripon. The Air Ministry paid Handley Page for a single prototype; its competitors were the Blackburn M.1/30 and the Vickers Type 207. No manufacturer could meet
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1920 Golders Green Handley Page O/400 crash


The 1920 Handley Page O/400 crash occurred on 14 December 1920 when a Handley Page Transport Handley Page O/400 on a scheduled passenger flight from London to Paris with two crew and six passengers crashed at Golders Green in North London after take-off from Cricklewood Aerodrome. The crew of 2 and two passengers were killed in the first fatal accident for the airline since the service had started in December 1919. It was reported as the first recorded airliner crash in history, but a larger airliner had crashed the previous year. The aircraft involved
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1929 Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 crash


The 1929 Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 crash happened on 17 June 1929 when Handley Page W.10 G-EBMT suffered an engine failure and subsequently ditched in the English Channel off Dungeness with the loss of seven lives. The aircraft was operating an international scheduled flight from Croydon to Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France. The accident aircraft was Handley Page W.10 G-EBMT "City of Ottawa", c/n W10-4. It had been delivered to Imperial Airways on 25 December 1925. G-EBMT was operating an
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Manston Airport


use the open farmlands between Minster and Manston as a site for emergency landings. The Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston was opened in response. A training school, originally set up to instruct pilots in the use of the new Handley Page Type O bombers, was soon established. By the close of 1916, there were already two units stationed at Manston: the Operational War Flight Command and the Handley Page Training School. Its location near the Kent coast gave Manston some advantages over other aerodromes, and regular additions in men and machinery were
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Frederick Handley Page


, with Gustav Lachmann, of the leading edge slot to improve the stall characteristics of aircraft wings. Frederick Handley Page was the uncle of World War II flying ace Geoffrey Page. Handley Page was born in Cheltenham, the second son of Frederick Joseph Page, a furniture maker and member of the Plymouth Brethren. He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School. In 1902, against his parents' wishes, he moved to London to study electrical engineering at Finsbury Technical College. On qualifying in 1906 he was appointed head designer at Johnson
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British Air Transport (painting)


eight passengers. Flying above, is a later Handley Page H.P.20. A white Handley Page W8, named the "Newcastle" (later the "Duchess of York"), is seen behind and slightly to the right of the green "Vulture". It was Handley Page's first civil aircraft with the world's first in-built lavatory and it first flew in November 1919. Next is the blue Vickers Vimy Commercial, "City of London". Although it has an open cockpit for the pilot and co-
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Handley Page Victor


The Handley Page Victor is a British jet-powered strategic bomber, developed and produced by the Handley Page Aircraft Company, which served during the Cold War. It was the third and final "V-bomber" to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), the other two being the Avro Vulcan and the Vickers Valiant. The Victor had been developed as part of the United Kingdom's airborne nuclear deterrent. In 1968, it was retired from the nuclear mission following the discovery of fatigue cracks, which had
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Handley Page Halifax


their equipment. A transport/cargo version of the Halifax was also produced, known as the "Handley Page Halton". The Handley Page Halifax was a British four-engined heavy bomber. The aircraft was a mostly orthodox design, a mid-wing monoplane with a tail unit featuring twin fins and rudders. The Halifax featured all-metal construction with a smooth, stressed skin covering the majority of the exterior surfaces; the flight control surfaces were an exception, being fabric-covered instead. The slab-sided fuselage
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Leading-edge slat


in conjunction with the leading-edge slats to test improved low-speed performance. This was later known as the Handley Page H.P.20 Several years later, having subsequently taken employment at the Handley-Page aircraft company, Lachmann was responsible for a number of aircraft designs, including the Handley Page Hampden. Licensing the design became one of the company's major sources of income in the 1920s. The original designs were in the form of a fixed slot near the leading edge of the wing, a design that was used on a
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Gustav Lachmann


Handley Page H.P.75. Lachmann was regarded with suspicion by the British counter-intelligence service MI5 as a possible spy. On the outbreak of World War II Lachmann was sent to Quebec on the "Duchess of York" as an enemy alien and also interned on the Isle of Man, but after pressure from his employers he was eventually permitted by the authorities to continue his work for Handley-Page in Lingfield Prison. In 1949 he became a British citizen. He stayed with Handley-Page for the remainder of his career,
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Miles Aircraft


. It was alleged that they recklessly made the misleading statement that the company had orders on hand which were sufficient to ensure production for the following two years, and that they dishonestly concealed the fact that a profit for the manufacture of aircraft in 1947 was unlikely." Both men said that they believed every word of the prospectus was true. After the acquittal, an application for costs for £20,000 was disallowed. The aviation assets were purchased by Handley Page as Handley Page Reading Ltd. Handley Page produced the Miles-designed M.60
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Curtiss Tanager


. Even before the competition was decided, however, Handley Page was suing Curtiss for the unlicensed use of the leading-edge slot. Curtiss claimed they were using the slots experimentally and would apply for a license for any commercial use. Curtiss counter-sued Handley Page for infringements of six of their patents in the Handley Page machine. They also cited a ruling that the British machine was not permitted to be imported into the US. Following the competition, the Tanager was destroyed in a fire when sparks from its engine set
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Handley Page Hampden


The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a British twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers Wellington. The newest of the three medium bombers, the Hampden was often referred to by aircrews as the "Flying Suitcase" because of its cramped crew conditions. The Hampden was powered by Bristol Pegasus radial engines but a variant known as the Handley Page Hereford had in-line Napier
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Handley Page Halifax


The Handley Page Halifax was a Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine "HP56" proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being
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Handley Page Halifax


Halifax changed sometime after spring 1942. On 2 June 1942, in a response to a telegram sent by Frederick Handley Page, congratulating Harris on the success of the first 1000 bomber Cologne raid, he stated: "My Dear Handley Page. We much appreciate your telegram of congratulation on Saturday night's work, the success of which was very largely due to your support in giving us such a powerful weapon to wield. Between us we will make a job of it." Following the invasion of Europe in 1944, the
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Handley Page


ultimate intent of bombing Berlin in revenge for the Zeppelin attacks on London. Handley Page had been asked by the Admiralty to produce a "bloody paralyser of an aeroplane". These aircraft included the O/100 of 1915, the O/400 of 1918 and the four-engined V/1500 with the range to reach Berlin. The V/1500 had only just entered operational service as the war ended in 1918. The Handley Page factory at Radlett Aerodrome employed women as part of the war effort, and was visited by royalty. In early 1919, a
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Handley Page


The three types produced were known as the V-Bombers, and Handley Page's contribution was the HP.80 Victor, a four-engined, crescent-winged design. This aircraft remained in service (as a tanker aircraft) well beyond the demise of the company which created it. In 1947 Handley Page bought some of the assets of the bankrupt Miles Aircraft company. These assets include existing designs, tools and jigs, most notably for the Miles M.52 supersonic research aircraft, and the Miles site at Woodley, near Reading.
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Radlett


when land to the west of Watling Street was sold off. In 1910 the estate of Aldenham Lodge to the north of Shenley Hill was released for development and in 1935 the Newberries estate. Newberries mansion was demolished in the 1950s and Aldenham Lodge in 1964. Handley Page Ltd opened a grass airfield just north of the town in 1929 for the production of aircraft. By 1939 Radlett Aerodrome was upgraded to have three hard runways for use in the production of Handley Page Hampden and Handley Page Halifax bombers during the Second World War.
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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. In late 1920, Handley Page started design of a new single-seat torpedo bomber to meet the requirements of Air Ministry Specification 3/20 for a carrier-based aircraft to replace the Sopwith Cuckoo, in competition with the Blackburn Dart. The resulting design, the Type T, (later
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Handley Page Hendon


it was recognised by both Handley Page and the Air Ministry that a two-seat aircraft would be more useful both for operational purposes and for experimental work. An order was therefore placed on 27 November 1923 for six two-seat derivatives of the Hanley III, designated the Type Ta (later known as the H.P.25) or Handley Page Hendon to meet the requirements of Air Ministry Specification 25/23 for an interim torpedo bomber. The first of the six aircraft to fly, (serial "N9724") flew on 7 July 1924
17901050
Daniel Guggenheim


, and 38 mph with the power off. 15 aircraft were entered of which only two, the American Curtiss Tanager and the British Handley Page Gugnunc met the requirements. The Curtiss Tanager was awarded as the winner in dubious circumstances, and then Handley Page sued Curtiss for unlicensed use of Handley Page slats, and worse, none of the entrants saw production or service afterwards; however, indirectly, the competition influenced designers in building safer aircraft. Guggenheim sparked controversy in the district of Alaska from 1906 onward. He was approached by
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Handley Page Marathon


The Handley Page (Reading) H.P.R.1 Marathon was a British civil 20-passenger light transport produced by Handley Page (Reading) Limited of Woodley Aerodrome, Reading, England. The Marathon originated as a design to meet the requirements of the Brabazon Committee. It was designed by Miles Aircraft Limited as a high-wing cantilever monoplane with four engines and all-metal construction. It was capable of carrying two crew and up to 20 passengers. The aircraft was designated the Miles M.60 Marathon with the first of three prototypes (registered U-10)
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Leading-edge slot


slot can increase the stalling angle to between 22° and 25°. Slots were first developed by Handley Page in 1919 and the first aircraft to fly with them was the experimental H.P.17, a modified Airco DH.9A. The first aircraft fitted with controllable slots was the Handley Page H.P.20. Licensing the design became one of Handley Page’s major sources of income in the 1920s. Similar, but retractable, leading-edge devices are called slats. When the slat opens, it creates a slot between the slat and the remainder of the
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Handley Page Type D


a new canvas covered fuselage had to be built to house the 50 hp (37 kW) Isaacson from the Type C. It was entered into the "Daily Mail" Circuit of Britain race, starting on 22 July 1911 but crashed at the end of its first flight on 15 July. Appearing after repairs in yellow varnish, it was named "The Antiseptic" by Handley Page's new test pilot, Edward Petre, after the tincture of iodine commonly used on cuts in those days. In the Handley Page factory at Barking
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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. The Handley Page Type E tandem seat monoplane was begun in the hope of winning a War Office competition late in 1911, but the specifications looked hard to meet, so it was decided to complete the machine as a demonstrator and submit a new design (the Type F) for the military prize
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Handley Page Dart Herald


Services. Before the second prototype had been completed, Handley Page was faced with the fact that it had no orders for the Herald, and that the market had changed and wanted turboprops. There had already been a very substantial investment in the Herald project, such that the management held a meeting to discuss continuation. Handley Page decided to press ahead with the Herald project, in an effort to recover the investment; announcing a new uprated version powered by the Rolls-Royce Dart. The revised aircraft, now designated the HPR.7
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Handley Page Jetstream


The Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream is a small twin-turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage. The aircraft was designed to meet the requirements of the United States commuter and regional airline market. The design was later improved and built by British Aerospace as the BAe Jetstream 31 and BAe Jetstream 32, featuring different turboprop engines. Handley Page was in an awkward position in the 1960s, wishing to remain independent of the "big two" British companies (Hawker Siddeley and the British Aircraft Corporation), but without the money needed to
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Handley Page V/1500


wood and fabric materials. A relatively novel design feature was the gunner's position at the extreme rear of the fuselage, between the four fins. Owing to pressure of work at Handley Page's Cricklewood factory and to ensure security, the first prototype was constructed by Harland and Wolff at Belfast, Northern Ireland, being assembled at Cricklewood and first flying on 22 May 1918. Orders were placed with a number of companies (including Harland and Wolff, Beardmore, Handley Page, Grahame-White and Alliance Aircraft for a total of
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Handley Page Halifax


were assembled and flown from Radlett Aerodrome; the first production aircraft flew from Radlett on 11 October 1940. The sizeable production run envisioned required the involvement of several external parties in addition to Handley Page. The resulting "Halifax Group" was established to oversee the manufacturing programme, comprising English Electric (who had previously been a valued contributor in the production of the Handley Page Hampden), various firms within the London Aircraft Production Group, Fairey Aviation, and Rootes Motors. Because of this scheme and other initiatives, the Halifax was
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Handley Page HP.100


The Handley Page HP.100 was a tendered submission to build a long-range, high-speed reconnaissance aircraft for the Royal Air Force, able to overfly Soviet territory in the face of anti-aircraft defences, and to supply information for the V bomber force carrying nuclear weapons. The operational requirement, OR.330, specified an unarmed radar-equipped aircraft capable of cruising in excess of Mach 2, able to reach Mach 3, and having a range of around 5,000 mi (8,050 km). Handley Page, Shorts, Vickers
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Handley Page Type O


German Spring Offensive. In September 1918, the 41st Wing was formed with the Handley Pages of A Squadron RNAS (Squadron Commander K. S. Savory), formed at Manston for night bombing and flown to Ochey in October. (A Squadron was later called 16 Squadron RNAS, then from 1 April 1918, 216 Squadron RAF.) On 9 August, 97 Squadron arrived in France and ten days later, 215 Squadron was transferred, then on 31 August 115 Squadron arrived and 100 Squadron was re-equipped with Handley Pages by
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Handley Page Hare


The Handley Page HP.34 Hare was a British two-seat high-altitude day bomber designed and built at Cricklewood by Handley Page. It was designed by Harold Boultbee to meet the requirements of Air Ministry Specification 23/25 for a replacement for the Hawker Horsley in the day bomber role, competing against the Blackburn Beagle, Hawker Harrier, Gloster Goring and Westland Witch. The Hare was a conventional biplane, with single-bay unequal-span staggered wings, of mixed wood and metal construction (although the specification required that any production aircraft
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Handley Page Type L


The Handley Page L/200 was the internal designation for a biplane aircraft by Handley Page, conceived to compete for the Daily Mail £10,000 prize for the first nonstop air crossing of the Atlantic. One prototype was designed and built in 1914 at the order of Princess Ludwig of Löwenstein-Wertheim. The L/200 designation came from its 200 hp (150 kW) Salmson 2M.7 engine, but the engine was requisitioned by the Admiralty when it arrived from France, so although the aircraft had been substantially built it was never finally assembled or flown
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Handley Page HP.115


The Handley Page HP.115 was a British delta wing research aircraft built by Handley Page to test the low-speed handling characteristics to be expected from a supersonic airliner of slender delta configuration. It formed part of the British supersonic aircraft research programme, carried out in the 1960s and sponsored by the Ministry of Supply, that eventually produced the Concorde. Through the 1950s various studies on supersonic transports (SSTs) suggested that the economics of such designs were far too poor to be practical. Lift is generated in different ways at supersonic speeds
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Handley Page Type A


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. Handley Page improved the design to include lateral control via wing warping and fitted a 25 hp (18.6 kW)
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Bodiansky 20


The Bodiansky 20, a French four-seat touring aircraft flown in the early 1930s, was one of the first French aircraft to adopt Handley Page slots to delay the stall and lower landing speed. Though the Handley Page H.P.20 had demonstrated the efficacy of leading edge slots used in coordination with flaps in delaying the onset of stall at high angles of attack in 1921, they were only adopted slowly across Europe. The Handley Page Gugnunc of 1929 had two groups of slots, one which opened with the flaps and the other automatically
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Handley Page H.P.43


not get beyond the design stage as Imperial later decided that they did not want it. Nonetheless, when Air Ministry specification C.16/28 was issued, calling for a replacement bomber-transport for the Handley Page Clive and Vickers Victoria, Handley Page offered a design which used the tri-motor's wings and engine mountings married to a new monocoque fuselage with gun positions and a revised tail. The Air Ministry ordered a prototype with the proviso that it should have a more familiar fabric covered and gauze windowed fuselage of tubular construction. This
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William Harold Nelson Shakespeare


one of the pioneers of military and civil transport aviation. While still serving in the RAF, his services were employed by Handley Page to promote their new commercial passenger service in the Handley Page 0.400 series, which after the end of the First World War, had been converted from a bomber to a passenger aircraft. He was the captain of the first pan European flight from London to Athens, a flight which took place to promote Handley Page and prove the capability of the Aircraft. While in Athens, he met and flew
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Handley Page Marathon


flying on 19 May 1946. A total of 25 aircraft were ordered by the Ministry of Supply and 25 by British European Airways, but Miles had financial problems and needed orders for over 100, not helped when the prototype aircraft crashed and the power shortages led to the loss of components already produced. When the Miles company went bankrupt, Handley Page bought the assets, including the factory at Woodley near Reading, Berkshire and design rights to the Marathon. The new company, known as Handley Page (Reading) Limited, started
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Frederick Handley Page


could be patented. He delayed doing this until he was able to file a patent for a controllable device in which the slot could be opened and closed by the pilot. This was granted on 24 October 1919. The principle had been independently arrived at by Gustav Lachmann, a German pilot and engineer: Lachmann attempted to patent the idea a few weeks before Handley Page, but his patent application was initially refused. When his patent was retroactively granted, he contacted Handley Page but rather than getting involved in a legal dispute the
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Frederick Handley Page


1960. He died on 21 April 1962 in Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London at age 76. The house in Grosvenor Square where Handley Page lived, No. 18, now bears a blue plaque. In 1987, Handley-Page was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. He married Una Thynne (1890–1957) in 1918. They had three daughters, Helen Anne, born on 5 November 1919 (m. Manley Walker, d. 2001); Phyllis (Elizabeth
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Handley Page H.P.20


The Handley Page H.P.20 was an experimental monoplane modification of a de Havilland DH.9A, built to study controllable slots and slotted ailerons as high lift devices. It was the first aircraft to fly with controllable slots. Frederick Handley Page obtained his master patent for controllable slots on the edge of an aircraft wing on 24 October 1919. He knew that the lift coefficient of all wings increased linearly until the stall was approached, then fell away; he argued that if the stall could be delayed, higher lift coefficients could be reached. In
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Herbert G. Brackley


with a Handley Page V/1500 in order to attempt the trans-Atlantic crossing. Beaten in the attempt by Alcock and Brown, he flew the other way and completed the first flight from Newfoundland to New York City, accompanied by Admiral Mark Kerr. He also completed a number of other record breaking flights in America. Returning to Britain, he joined Handley Page as the Chief of the Air Department of Handley Page Transport. In 1921 he joined the British Air Mission as an Air Adviser to the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service and
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Handley Page Dart Herald


sales was to develop the Herald as a military transport. The Royal Air Force had a requirement for 45 tactical transports to replace piston-engined Vickers Valettas, and Handley Page began work in 1960 on the HP.124 to meet this need. This would have a new rear fuselage with a rear loading ramp under the raised tail. The HP.124 was considered favourite to beat Avro's 748 derivative, the Avro 780, with the high wing of the Handley Page expected to give easier loading than the more expensive Avro. While short-
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Handley Page Dart Herald


200 production model were eventually built during the six years of production, together with four Series 100s and eight Series 400s. The 50th, and last, Herald (a series 200 for Israel's Arkia) was flown and delivered in August 1968, after which Herald production ceased, allowing Handley Page's attention to be fully focused on the HP.137 Jetstream. Handley Page went into voluntary liquidation in August 1969, the spiralling cost of developing the Jetstream forcing its closure. Continuing support for the remaining Heralds in service was maintained by the
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Handley Page Type B


by variable wing area and centre of gravity movement and was keen to build an aircraft with "pendulum stability", i.e. with most of its mass mounted flexibly below the wings. Apparently he originally thought in terms of a tailess machine. In 1909 he commissioned Handley Page to build a prototype. This was done at Barking with input from both Handley Page and Thompson's assistant Robert Fenwick. The Type B had a standard fabric-covered spruce frame. The wide gap biplane wings were of two-bay form though in the
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Handley Page Type W


company designation was to have been Handley Page W/400. To meet an Air Ministry ruling the capacity was reduced to 12 passengers and the fuel tanks were moved from the engine nacelles to above the top wing. The engines were changed from the Napier Lion to the less powerful but more economical Rolls-Royce Eagle IX. In 1921 the Air Ministry ordered three aircraft, built as the W.8b, for use by Handley Page Transport, and later by Imperial Airways, on services to Paris and Brussels. Another aircraft was delivered to SABENA
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Handley Page Victor


signing the order for conversion of the B2s until after Handley Page went into liquidation. The contract for conversion was instead awarded to Hawker Siddeley, who produced a much simpler conversion than that planned by Handley Page, with the wingspan shortened to reduce wing bending stress and hence extend airframe life. While the Victor was never permanently based with any units stationed overseas, temporary deployments were frequently conducted, often in a ceremonial capacity or to participate in training exercises and competitions. Victor squadrons were dispatched on several extended deployments to the Far East
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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. In 1921 the United States Navy drew up a specification for a single-seat fighter aircraft capable of operating either as a landplane from its aircraft carriers or from the water as a seaplane, seeking designs from both American and European companies. The British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page, which had recently developed
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Handley Page Hastings


The Handley Page H.P.67 Hastings was a British troop-carrier and freight transport aircraft designed and manufactured by aviation company Handley Page for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Upon its introduction to service during September 1948, the Hastings was the largest transport plane ever designed for the service. Development of the Hastings had been initiated during the Second World War in response to Air Staff Specification C.3/44, which sought a new large four-engined transport aircraft for the RAF. Early on, development of a civil-oriented derivative had been
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Handley Page H.P.22


The Handley Page H.P.22 and H.P.23 were single-seat sport monoplanes produced for the 1923 Lympne light aircraft trials. They were not successful. With prizes worth a total of £2,150, the Lympne light aircraft competition of October 1923 attracted 28 entries including the Avro 558, de Havilland Humming Bird and Gloster Gannet. Handley Page provided three contestants, at that time without a company type letter but bearing the competition numbers 23, 25 and 26. These were designed by W.H Sayers, technical editor of "The Aeroplane" and owed
21987006
Handley Page HP.28 Handcross


The Handley Page Handcross was a single-engined biplane day bomber built to an Air Ministry specification. It was not put into production and only the three prototypes were built. In August 1923 the Air Ministry issued specification 26/23, which called for a day bomber powered by a Rolls Royce Condor III engine which could carry a 550 lb (250 kg) bomb load with a 500-mile (800 km) range. In response, Handley Page designed what was known at the time as the C/7 Handcross but retrospectively became the H.P.28 Handcross
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Handley Page Dart Herald


Handley Page had made the right choices with the HPR.3, which was named "Herald" in August 1954, this being a name easily translatable into French and Spanish. Extensive work by the sales team had produced considerable interest from potential customers, and Handley Page had 29 orders for the Herald (from Queensland Airlines, Australian National Airways, and Lloyd Aéreo Colombiano) by the time the first prototype made its maiden flight from Radlett on 25 August 1955, three months ahead of the first flight of the Friendship. Break-even
7834047
Handley Page Dart Herald


field testing of the prototype Herald 200 at RAF Martlesham Heath in 1961 showed off the Herald's good handling and ability to operate from unprepared airstrips, other obstacles were more taxing. The Minister of Aviation, Peter Thorneycroft, refused to sign a contract for the HP.124 unless Handley Page would agree to a merger with British Aircraft Corporation or Hawker Siddeley as part of the government's policy of consolidation of the British aircraft industry. As Hawker Siddeley offered less than half the valuation that Frederick Handley Page placed on the company, the merger
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Handley Page Jetstream


production model Jetstream 1 flew on 6 December 1968, and over the next year 36 would be delivered. However, by this point Handley Page had given up on the original engine, and the Jetstream 2 was launched with the larger 965 hp (720 kW) Astazou XVI, starting deliveries in late 1969. The late delivery and engine problems had driven development costs to over £13 million, far more than the original £3 million projections. Only three Jetstream 2s would be completed before Handley Page went bankrupt, and the
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Handley Page HP.14


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 R/200 was designed in 1917 to meet an Admiralty requirement for a two-seat reconnaissance fighter capable of operating either as a floatplane or from the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, the flush deck "HMS Argus" and the partly converted cruiser "HMS
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Handley Page HP.14


Furious". The R/200 was a small single-bay biplane powered by a 200 hp (149 kW) geared Hispano-Suiza 8 V-8 engine with a frontal radiator. Handley Page received an order for six prototypes in summer 1917. The first two prototypes, fitted with floats were flown in December 1917, with the third prototype, fitted with a wheeled undercarriage flying in February 1918. Test results were poorer than the competing Parnall Panther, and as Handley Page was concentrating on production and development of the O/400 and V/1500 heavy
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