Handley Page Hendon
# Handley Page Hendon

The Handley Page Hendon was a British torpedo bomber of the 1920s. A two-seat development of Handley Page's earlier single-seat Hanley, the Hendon was a single-engine biplane. While six aircraft were purchased by the British Air Ministry for evaluation and trials purposes, no further production ensued and the Hendon did not enter squadron service.

## Development and design

While the single-seat Handley Page Hanley had lost to the similar Blackburn Dart in fulfilling the requirements for a carrier-based torpedo bomber to equip Britain's Fleet Air Arm, it was recognised by both Handley Page and the Air Ministry that a two-seat aircraft would be more useful both for operational purposes and for experimental work. An order was therefore placed on 27 November 1923 for six two-seat derivatives of the Hanley III, designated the Type Ta (later known as the H.P.25) or Handley Page Hendon to meet the requirements of Air Ministry Specification 25/23 for an interim torpedo bomber.

The first of the six aircraft to fly, (serial N9724) flew on 7 July 1924, with the remaining five flying by September. It had a longer fuselage to accommodate the observer, who was provided with a .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Gun on a Scarff ring mounting, but initially, was similar to the Hanley III. Tests showed that it was tailheavy when carrying a torpedo, the outer wings being swept back by six degrees to avoid this.

## Operational history

The six Hendons were used for extensive trials to investigate various configurations of leading edge slots/slats. These allowed one aircraft to successfully land on HMS Furious while carrying a torpedo and without using arrestor gear. No further production occurred, the development of automatic slots in October 1927 making the Hendon obsolete.

## Variants

### Hendon I

    Initial configuration. Leading edge slots as Hanley III. Six built.

### Hendon II

    Improved slot gear. Three converted.

### Hendon III

    Slotted Flaps. One converted from Hendon II.

## Specifications (Hendon)

Data from Handley Page Aircraft since 1907.

General characteristics

* Crew: 2
* Length: 36 ft 6 in (11.13 m)
* Wingspan: 46 ft 0 in (14.02 m)
* Height: 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
* Wing area: 562 sq ft (52.2 $m^2)$
* Empty weight: 4,350 lb (1,973 kg)
* Gross weight: 6,970 lb (3,162 kg)
* Powerplant: 2 × Napier Lion IIB W-12 water-cooled piston engine, 450 hp (340 kW) each
* Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch propeller

Performance

* Maximum speed: 110 mph (180 km/h, 96 kn)
* Stall speed: 55 mph (89 km/h, 48 kn)
* Service ceiling: 9,500 ft (2,900 m)
* Wing loading: 12.4 lb/sq ft (61 $kg/m^2)$
* Power/mass: 0.065 hp/lb (0.107 kW/kg)

Armament

* Guns: 1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) forward firing Vickers machine gun and 1 × .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis gun in rear cockpit
* Bombs: 1 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo or 2 × 230 lb (105 kg) bombs
