 | |
| Industry | Aviation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 17 June 1909 |
| Founder | Frederick Handley Page |
| Defunct | March 1970[1] |
| Fate | Voluntary liquidation |
| Successor | Scottish Aviation |
| Headquarters | Cricklewood Aerodrome,Radlett Aerodrome |
Key people | Hedley Hazelden,Charles Joy,Gustav Lachmann, Godfrey Lee,Reginald Stafford,George Volkert |
| Subsidiaries | Handley Page Transport (until 1924) |
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Handley Page Limited was a Britishaerospace manufacturer. Founded byFrederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went intovoluntary liquidation and ceased to exist in 1970. The company, based atRadlett Aerodrome inHertfordshire, was noted for its pioneering role in aviation history and for producing heavybombers and largeairliners.
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Frederick Handley Page first experimented with and built severalbiplanes andmonoplanes at premises inWoolwich,Fambridge andBarking Creek. His company, founded on 17 June 1909, became the first British public company to build aircraft.
In 1912, Handley Page established an aircraft factory atCricklewood after moving fromBarking.[2] Aircraft were built there, and flown from the company's adjacent airfield known asCricklewood Aerodrome, which was later used byHandley Page Transport. The factory was later sold off toOswald Stoll and converted into Britain's largest film studio,Cricklewood Studios.
During theFirst World War, Handley Page produced a series ofheavy bombers for theRoyal Navy to bomb the GermanZeppelin yards, with the ultimate intent of bombing Berlin in revenge for the Zeppelin attacks on London.[2] Handley Page had been asked by theAdmiralty to produce a "bloody paralyser of an aeroplane".[citation needed] These aircraft included theO/100 of 1915, theO/400 of 1918 and the four-enginedV/1500 with the range to reach Berlin. The V/1500 had only just entered operational service as the war ended in 1918.[2]
The Handley Page factory atRadlett Aerodrome employed women as part of the war effort, and was visited by royalty.
In early 1919, a Handley Page V/1500 aircraft, dubbedAtlantic, was shipped toNewfoundland to attempt the world's first non-stopTransatlantic flight;[3] only to be beaten by aVickers Vimy piloted byAlcock and Brown in June of that year. TheAtlantic flew intoNew York City viaCanada on 9 October 1919, carrying the firstairmail from Canada to theUnited States of America.[4]
In the immediate postwar years, Handley Page modified some O/400's for passenger use, which they flew on the London-Paris route asHandley Page Transport. The V/1500 was considered too large to be practical at the time, but many design features of the V/1500 were later incorporated into an O/400 airframe to produce their first dedicated passenger design, theW.8[2] that led to a series of similar airliners, fitted with two or three engines, which, aside from being used by Handley Page Transport, were also exported to Belgium.[citation needed]
In 1924 Handley Page Transport merged with two other airlines to createImperial Airways, as the UK's national airline service, which continued to use a number of the W.8, W.9 and W.10 series of airliners. Handley Page continued to develop largebiplane airliners, including the luxuriousHandley Page H.P.42, for use onImperial routes to Africa and India.[citation needed]
Handley Page developed theHandley Page Slat (or slot), an auxiliary airfoil mounted ahead and above the wing, which formed a narrow gap which improved airflow at highangles of attack and improved low-speed handling.[5] The leading edge slat was simultaneously designed by the German aerodynamicistGustav Lachmann, who was later employed by Handley Page. The design was so successful that licensing fees to other companies were their main source of income in the early 1920s.
In 1929, Cricklewood Aerodrome was closed and Handley Page moved the aircraft final assembly toRadlett Aerodrome. Cricklewood Aerodrome was taken over byCricklewood Studios, the largest film studio in the UK at that time. Manufacture of aircraft parts and sub-assemblies continued until 1964 at Cricklewood when the remainder of the site was sold off and aWickes home renovation store currently occupies the site.[citation needed]
With theSecond World War looming, Handley Page designed and produced theHP.52 Hampden bomber, which took part in the first British raid on Berlin.
In response to a 1936 government request for heavier, longer ranged aircraft, Handley Page tendered the HP.56 design powered by twinRolls-Royce Vultures and this was ordered, along with what became theAvro Manchester. However the Vulture proved so troublesome that – years before the engine was abandoned byRolls-Royce in 1940 – the Air Staff decided that the HP.56 should be fitted with four engines instead. Therefore, before reaching the prototype stage, the HP.56 design was reworked into the four-enginedHP.57 Halifax.[6] The Halifax became the second most-prolific British heavy bomber of the war after theAvro Lancaster (itself essentially a four-engine development of the Manchester). Although in some respects (such as crew survivability) better than the Lancaster, the Halifax suffered in terms of altitude performance[7] and was redeployed toward the end of the war as a heavy transport and glider tug, with several variants being specifically built as such, including the HP.70 Halton.
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After the war, the British Government sought tenders for jet bombers to carry the nation'snuclear deterrent. The three types produced were known as theV-Bombers, and Handley Page's contribution was theHP.80 Victor, a four-engined, crescent-winged design. This aircraft remained in service (as atanker aircraft) well beyond the demise of the company which created it.
In 1947 Handley Page bought some of the assets of the bankruptMiles Aircraft company. These assets include existing designs, tools and jigs, most notably for theMiles M.52 supersonic research aircraft, and the Miles site atWoodley, near Reading. The operation was namedHandley Page (Reading) Ltd, a company constituted to buy and operate the assets formed out of the inactiveHandley Page Transport Ltd. The most significant of the inherited designs became theHerald airliner. Designs from the Reading site used the initials HPR ("Handley Page (Reading)").
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 by two companies:Hawker Siddeley and theBritish Aircraft Corporation.[citation needed]
Unable to compete for government orders or build large commercial aircraft, Handley Page produced its final notable Handley Page design, theJetstream. This was a smallturboprop-powered commuter aircraft, with apressurised cabin and a passenger capacity of 12 to 18. It was designed primarily for the United States "feederliner" market.[citation needed]
Although successful, Jetstream was too late to save Handley Page, and the company went intovoluntary liquidation in March 1970 and was wound up after 61 years trading under the same name. The Jetstream lived on, the design being purchased and produced byScottish Aviation atPrestwick, continuing after the company was bought byBritish Aerospace in 1977.[citation needed]
| Site of Cricklewood Factory | |
|---|---|
| OS Grid Reference: | TQ240862 |
| Site of Radlett Aerodrome | |
| OS Grid Reference: | TL155038 |
Radlett Aerodrome was opened in 1929 as a grass aerodrome for Handley Page Civil Aircraft. Its runway was extended in 1939 to enable production ofHalifax bombers. By the time of its closure the airfield had two runways:
Most of the towers,hangars and runways were demolished in the 1970s after the Company was terminated. The M25 Motorway now runs on the south side of the site, withLafarge Aggregates now owning the remainder. The runway surface was removed and replaced with grass, but a shadow remains when viewed from the air.
The aerodrome was used in the 1962 film,The Iron Maiden.
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Handley Page originally used a letter sequence to designate types (i.e.A,B,C etc.). Beginning with the model E, the letter was used in combination with a slash and a number that referred to the installed horsepower, at least initially. However the 100 in O/100 indicated the type's 100-foot wingspan, while other designs it may or may not have been meaningful other than as a design sequence. By 1923, the company had come to the end of the alphabet and had begun reusing earlier letters, but this would have become confusing, so from 1924 they assigned the lettersHP and a sequential number to indicate the model, with previous aircraft being retroactively assigned numbers in the new sequence, starting with the Type A as the HP.1. Thus the O/400 became the HP.16 and theW.8 the HP.18. Unbuilt projects were skipped from this sequence.
When the assets of Miles Aircraft were taken over, the latter's Reading design office usedHPR for Handley Page Reading, followed by a number as with the HPR.1 Marathon.
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