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. Design and development 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 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 aircraft was the H.P.43. Only two other manufactures had submitted types in competition: the Vickers Type 163 was accepted as a private venture only