Handley Page Hanley

Hanley

National origin: United Kingdom
Manufacturer: Handley Page
First flight: 1922
Status: Prototype
Number built: 4
Variants: Handley Page Hendon

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 four aircraft being built.

Development and design

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 known as the H.P.19) and named the Hanley was a single-engine biplane of wooden construction. It like the Dart, was powered by a Napier Lion engine and had a crew of one. It had folding three-bay wings which were fitted with full span leading edge slots on both upper and lower wings in order to improve low-speed handling.

Three prototypes were ordered, the first of which (serialed N143) flew on 3 January 1922. Initial testing revealed that performance was disappointing, with low speed handling and the view from the cockpit also poor. After being damaged in a crash landing, the first prototype was rebuilt with new wingtips, a revised two-bay wing and with the control cables for the elevators enclosed in the rear fuselage to reduce drag, flying in December 1922 as the Hanley Mark II. These changes improved performance, but handling was still poor. The third prototype was therefore fitted with revised slots, as well as the drag reduction changes tested on the Hanley Mark II, the revised aircraft being designated Hanley Mark III, demonstrating considerably improved handling.

By the time that the Hanley Mark III was available for testing, the Dart, which was developed from Blackburn's earlier Swift, had already been ordered into service.

Specifications (Hanley III)

Data from Handley Page Aircraft since 1907

General characteristics

Crew: One
Length: 33 ft 4 in (10.17 m)
Wingspan: 46 ft 0 in (14 m)
Height: 14 ft 2 in (4.32 m)
Wing area: 562 ft² (52.2 m²)
Empty weight: 3,640 lb (1,655 kg)
Loaded weight: 6,444 lb (2,920 kg)
Powerplant: 1x— Napier Lion IIB 12-cylinder water cooled W engine, 450 hp (336 kW)

Performance

Maximum speed: 101 kn (116 mph, 187 km/h)
Stall speed: 48 kn (55 mph, 88 km/h)
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,640 m)
Wing loading: 11.5 lb/ft² (55.9 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.070 hp/lb (0.12 kW/kg)

Armament

1 x— 18 in (457 mm) torpedo

Related development

Handley Page Hendon

Comparable aircraft

Blackburn Dart

Bibliography

Barnes, C.H. Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. London:Putnam, 1976. ISBN 0 370 00030 7.
Mason, Francis K. The British Bomber since 1914. London:Putnam, 1994. ISBN 0 85177 861 5.
Lewis, Peter. The British Bomber since 1914. London:Putnam, Third edition, 1980. ISBN 0370 30265.
"The Handley Page 'Hanley' Torpedo 'Plane". Flight. 30 November 1922. Pages 697-702.

Handley Page Hanley Pictures and Handley Page Hanley for Sale.

Living Warbirds: The best warbirds DVD series.

Source: WikiPedia