Handley Page H.P.42

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_H.P.42

The Handley Page H.P.42 and H.P.45 were British four-engine biplane airliners
designed to a 1928 Imperial Airways specification by Handley Page of Radlett in
Hertfordshire. The H.P.42/45 were the land-based backbones of Imperial Airways
and along with the airline's later flying boats are well remembered. Eight were
built, four of each type; all were named, with names beginning with the letter
"H". The three survivors were pressed into Royal Air Force service at the
outbreak of the Second World War. No lives were lost in civilian service (a
record thought to be unique for contemporary aircraft) but by 1940, all
aeroplanes had been destroyed.

The H.P.42 was designed for the long-range Eastern routes and the similar H.P.45
was built for the European routes. Imperial Airways called the H.P.42 the
H.P.42E (E for "Eastern" routes - India and South Africa), while the H.P.45 was
the H.P.42W (W for "Western" i.e. European routes). The H.P.42 and H.P.45
designations were Handley Page's identifiers but the HP.45 was not commonly used
during the flying lives of the aircraft. The H.P.42 was a large unequal-span
biplane, all-metal except for the fabric coverings of the wings, tail surfaces
and rear fuselage. The wings were braced by a Warren truss. The tailplane was
biplane with three fins. The H.P.42 had four Bristol Jupiter XIFs of 490 hp (370
kW) each while the H.P.45 used four Jupiter XFBM supercharged engines of 555 hp
(414 kW). Both had two engines on the upper wing and one on each side of the
fuselage on the lower wing.

The crew compartment was enclosed—a new development—and there were two passenger
cabins, one forward and one aft of the wings. The H.P.42E carried six (later 12)
in the forward compartment and twelve in the aft. There was substantial baggage
room. The H.P.42W seated 18 forward and 20 aft, with reduced baggage capacity.


Role
Civilian airliner

Manufacturer
Handley Page

First flight
14 November 1930

Introduction
June 1931

Retired
1940 (all lost)

Primary users
Imperial Airways
Royal Air Force

Number built
4 HP.42, 4 HP.45

The first flight was on 14 November 1930, by G-AAGX later to be named Hannibal,
with Squadron Leader Thomas Harold England at the controls. The certificate of
airworthiness was granted in May 1931, permitting commercial service; the first
flight with fare-paying passengers was to Paris on 11 June of that year.

Imperial Airways wanted its airliners to land safely at low speed, on grass or
unpaved airfields, which meant a large wing area (almost as much as a 767 that
weighs more than 10 times as much). In 1951 Peter Masefield wrote, "The trouble
about a slow aeroplane with a really low wing loading is the way it insists on
wallowing about in turbulent air ... One of the reasons that seven times as many
people fly to Paris to-day, compared with 1931, is that the incidence of
airsickness in modern aircraft is only one-hundredth of that in the pre-War
types."Another writer remembered "I had quite often been landed in a '42' at
Lympne to take on sufficient fuel to complete the flight (from Paris) to London
against a headwind — 90 mph was its normal cruising speed." However 90 mph was
still three times faster than the previous fastest way of making the journey,
which was by steamship and train. When the H.P.42s were finally withdrawn from
civil service on 1 September 1939 they had recorded almost a decade without any
major accidents.

Specifications (H.P.42E)

General characteristics
Crew: 4
Capacity: 24 passengers
Length: 92 ft 2 in (28.09 m)
Wingspan: 130 ft (39.62 m)
Height: 27 ft (8.23 m)
Wing area: 2,989 sq ft (278 m²)
Airfoil: RAF 28
Empty weight: 17,740 lb (8,047 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 28,000 lb (12,700 kg)
Powerplant: 4 × Bristol Jupiter XIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 490 hp (365 kW)
each

Performance
Maximum speed: 120 mph (104 knots, 193 km/h)
Cruise speed: 100 mph (87 knots, 161 km/h)
Range: 500 mi (435 nmi, 805 km)
Rate of climb: 790 ft/min (4 m/s)





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