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Handley Page Heyford

1934 GOLDEN AGE WORLD WAR 2

The Story of Handley Page Heyford

In 1927, the Air Ministry introduced specification B.19/27, calling for a new twin-engine heavy night bomber with a speed of 115 mph, a war load of 1,546 pounds, and a range of 920 miles. The type was designed to replace the aging inventory of the Vickers Virginia and Handlery Page Hinedi biplanes, which were in service at the time.

While Fairey Hendon was ultimately selected as the winner, delays in the program forced the Air Force to choose Handley Page Heyford as well. Submissions were also received from regular industry players from Avro, Bristol and Vickers.

Handley Page engineers designed the "HP.38", which continued the biplane wing shape, forming a two-piece parallel strut arrangement. The fuselage is aluminum, and the inner structure of the wings is also made of metal, while being covered with fabric. HP. The 38 seemed a bit unconventional for a biplane bomber, as the fuselage was attached to the upper wing section.

This forced designers to integrate the bomb bay into the center section of the lower wing assembly. As an advantage, the hull has now been freed from space-consuming bomb bays, providing more space for crew quarters and defensive machine gun positions - machine guns are placed in the back, nose and belly positions (7.7mm types). The empennage adopts a dual rudder configuration, the landing gear is fixed, the "trailer" arrangement is adopted, and the main legs are streamlined (sprayed). The four operators included the pilot, the bombardier navigator (who also acted as the gunner), a dedicated radio operator, and the gunner who managed the inverted and prone positions.

The bomb load is listed as a 2,500-pound regular drop store.

Due to Fairey's Hendon product delay (prototype has crashed), Handley page gives solid results in reviews with RAF, HP. 38 was executed under the changed name "HP. 50". The name "Heyford" derives from the bomber's first deployment - in November 1933 at RAF Highford (Oxfordshire) as part of the RAF 99th Squadron.

Production included 125 bombers from 1933-1936 and entered service in 1934.

There are four main production versions of this bomber, led by the "Heyford Mk. I", powered by 2 Rolls-Royce Kestrel III 575 hp series engines. Fifteen were built to this standard, the last being used as a prototype for the "Heyford Mk. IA". In this modified form a four-bladed propeller and motor-generator were installed, while changes were made to the engine section.

Completed 23 of this brand. The "Heyford Mk. II" used two 640-horsepower Rolls-Royce Kestrel IV engines, and a total of 16 were produced. The "Heyford Mk.

III" was the last Heyford product, but was more or less the final form of the range - it was powered by 2 695 hp Rolls-Royce Kestrel VI supercharged (steam condenser cooled) engines, About 70 aircraft were built to standard.

Hayford eventually had 12 RAF squadrons in the air - despite being an interwar design and biplane, it had a relatively short lifespan. The aircraft became the last heavy bomber in RAF service to be configured as a biplane, as monoplanes quickly became the route of modern flight service. Nonetheless, in the mid-1930s, as Europe prepared for another world war, the Hayford series made an important contribution to the RAF's inventory (both on paper and in maintaining night bomber crews). ).

Hayford was not exported and was not in official service until it was decommissioned in 1939. By this time, the design was completely outdated - by 1941 the last ones flew as trainers. The Heyford IA took over in August 1934 with the introduction of the Heyford I model in 1933. The Heyford III brand was launched in late 1936.

They were replaced as early as 1937, giving way to Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers Wellesley bombers in that order.

The competing Fairey Hendon was able to enter service in 1936, but only 15 such examples were completed. These were also painted in 1939 and lived a quiet life - although they were the first all-metal low-wing monoplane bombers in service with the RAF.