Handley Page Type O
| Handley Page O / 400 | |
|---|---|
 Handley-Page O / 400 of the US Army |
|
| Type: | bomber |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
December 7, 1915 |
| Commissioning: |
August 1916 |
| Production time: |
until 1918 |
| Number of pieces: |
42 O / 100 and 554 O / 400 |
The Handley Page Type O was a bomber of the Handley Page , which the British air force during World War inserting.
history
In its day, the Handley Page was one of the largest aircraft in the world. It was built in two main variants, the O / 100 or HP11 and the O / 400 or HP12. Handley Page continued to number its planes alphabetically until the 1920s. The “Type O” was followed by the “P” (HP13) and “R” (HP14) types. Nevertheless, there were often erroneous names such as "Handley Page 0/100" and "0/400". After the war the civilian version W / 400 (HP16) emerged, from which the Handley Page W.8 emerged .
When Britain entered World War I in August 1914, the German military airships were a threat that the British armed forces could not match with comparable bomber capacities. Captain Murray Sueter, Director of the Air Department in the British Admiralty, called for a long-range reconnaissance bomber to be made in December 1914. The corresponding project was called M / 200 and MS / 200 and referred to the design of a Handley Page L / 200 with 200 HP engines. Sueter's technical advisor Harris Booth initially preferred the prototype of a seaplane , which was already under construction at the J. Samuel White & Co. shipyard in Cowes under the designation AD Seaplane Type 1000 (AD Admiralty) . White had already built some seaplanes under the Wight Aircraft brand and was now following the model of an Italian Caproni large aircraft. This large seaplane with three Sunbeam engines with 310 hp each and an impressive wingspan of 34.5 m would have been suitable for coastal surveillance, the defense of docks and the bombing of anchorages for the German deep-sea fleet .
HP O / 100
development
However, the contract was awarded to the hitherto little important aircraft company Handley Page for the design of a biplane with a 30 m wingspan, the O / 100. Piloted by Lieutenant Commander John Babington, his prototype with the serial number 1455 flew in Hendon on December 17, 1915. It still had a glazed cockpit , strong defensive armament, and parts of the fuselage and the fuel tanks were armored. However, the plane was a little underpowered; so the glazing was removed again to reduce weight. The second prototype flew in April 1916 and formed the basis of the O / 100 series. The flight tests exceeded expectations; the machine was easy to control and even remained airworthy with just one motor. The wings could be folded back to enable storage in a hangar . The aircraft carried 16 51-kg bombs that were hung in a fuselage shaft. The HP O / 100 set a new record when it took twenty passengers on board on a flight over London .
commitment
After the first O / 100 had been accepted at the Manston Flight School , the British Navy ordered 28 aircraft and the Army ordered another twelve for the Royal Flying Corps . The first of a total of 46 built type O / 100 machines were transferred to Dunkirk in November 1916 by Squadron 7A of the 5th Wing of the British Naval Aviation (RNAS) . In the process, an airplane named Amazon got lost . The Amazon landed near Laon and so fell into the hands of the German troops undamaged. Wing 3 of the RNAS was later equipped with these aircraft.
An O / 100 flew its first combat mission on the night of March 16, 1917 when it attacked the Mühlen railway junction near Metz . On April 23, 1917, the squadron managed to damage a German destroyer . However, when a large aircraft was shot down by a German fighter plane just two days later, the squadron switched from day to night attacks. In each case, individual aircraft crews received orders to attack railways, ports or airfields or went on patrol flights against German submarines.
An aircraft was flown from England to the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea , where it carried out long-range attacks from Mudros with distances of up to 700 km on Bulgarian and Turkish cities such as Constantinople .
HP O / 400
development
The success of the O / 100 type led to further development as the O / 400. The tanks that were in the engine pods on the O / 100 model have now been relocated to the fuselage. More powerful engines and new Drift Sight Mark IA bomb sights were installed, and the O / 400 could now carry the newly developed 748 kg, 1,650 lb bomb.
The following liquid-cooled V-engine variants were used:
| Manufacturer | Type | power |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls Royce | Eagle II | 250 PS (approx. 180 kW) |
| 275 PS (approx. 200 kW) | ||
| Fiat | A 12bis | 260 PS (approx. 190 kW) |
| Sunbeam | Maori | 275 PS (approx. 200 kW) |
| Cossak | 320 PS (approx. 240 kW) | |
| Rolls Royce | Eagle IV | 355 PS (approx. 260 kW) |
| Eagle VIII | 375 PS (approx. 280 kW) | |
| Liberty | 400 PS (approx. 290 kW) |
One aircraft was experimentally equipped with four 200 HP Hispano-Suiza engines.
commitment
The first machines of the type O / 400 were used in April 1918 by the Independent Force of the newly formed Royal Air Force , a strategic bomber fleet, on the Western Front. With these more bomber units could now be set up; they flew bombing raids to ward off the German spring offensive or received strategic missions from the Independent Force against distant targets in Germany, with squadron missions with up to forty aircraft.
Especially the No. 217 Squadron RAF of the Independent Force flew heavy bombing raids at night against industrial cities in the Saarland , Rhineland and Lorraine from the British Isles . For the first time, 750 kg bombs with a powerful detonation force were dropped.
One aircraft was sent to No. 1 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps and supported the operations of the rebellious Arabs under Colonel Lawrence against the Turks in Palestine .
With his short story Turnabout , written in 1932, about an American bomber pilot in World War I, William Faulkner gave an impression of the combat use of a large Handley Page aircraft.
| unit | Armed forces | Type |
|---|---|---|
| No. 7 Squadron | RNAS | O / 100 |
| No. 7A Squadron | ||
| No. 14 Squadron | ||
| No. 15 Squadron | ||
| No. 16 Squadron | O / 100 and O / 400 | |
| No. 58 Squadron | RAF | O / 400 |
| No. 97 Squadron | ||
| No. 100 Squadron | ||
| No. 115 Squadron | ||
| No. 116 Squadron | ||
| No. 207 Squadron | ||
| No. 207 Squadron | ||
| No. 214 Squadron | O / 100 and O / 400 | |
| No. 216 Squadron | O / 400 | |
| No. 1 Squadron | Australian Flying Corps | O / 400 (Palestine Front) |
A total of 600 O / 400 aircraft were ordered, 400 delivered and 256 of them handed over to the RAF Bomber Command by December 1918 :
| number of pieces | Manufacturer | comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harland & Wolff | prototype |
| 126 | Handley Page | |
| 176 | Royal Aircraft Factory | |
| 100 | Metropolitan Wagon Co. | Birmingham |
| 100 | National Aircraft Factory Co. | Birmingham |
| 50 | Birmingham Co. | |
| 50 | Birmingham Carriage | |
| 20th | Birmingham Carrier Co. | |
| 50 | British caudron | |
| 50 | Clayton & Shuttleworth | Lincoln |
| 107 | Standard Aircraft Corporation | Manufactured under license in the USA |
Post-war use
In 1919 the British Air Force replaced their O / 400s with Vickers Vimy bombers . Some machines were converted to type O / 700 transport aircraft. Several aircraft were exported to China under the designation O / 7 , where they were used in the civil war-like conflicts, including the decisive attack on the passes near Shanghai on October 19, 1924.
For the newly founded airline Handley Page Transport , some O / 400s were equipped with ten or seven passenger seats; these variants were designated as types O / 10 and O / 11. Later Handley Page developed the aircraft to the W / 400 (HP16), from which the Handley Page W.8 emerged .
Military use
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data (O / 100) | Data (O / 400) |
|---|---|---|
| crew | 3 | 4 (pilot, co-pilot, observer, gunner) |
| length | 19.1 m | 19.16 m |
| span | 30.48 m | 30.48 m |
| Wingspan (folded) | 9.45 m | 9.45 m |
| height | 6.71 m | |
| Wing area | 153 m² | |
| Empty mass | 3719 kg | |
| Takeoff mass | 5909 kg | |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 6350 kg | |
| Top speed | 150 km / h | 156 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 2590 m | |
| Range | 1120 km | |
| Flight duration | 6-10 h | |
| Standard engines | 2 × V12 engines Rolls-Royce Eagle II | 2 × V12 engines Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII |
| power | 2 × 250 hp | 2 × 268 kW (360 PS) |
| Armament | 3 to 5 Lewis machine guns (7.7 mm) | |
| Bomb load | approx. 800 kg | up to 909 kg in the bomb bay and under the wings |
See also
literature
- Heinz Nowarra: The Development of Airplanes 1914–1918. Munich 1959.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. u. a. Manfred von Richthofen : The red fighter pilot . Ullstein, Berlin 1917.
- ↑ according to the KTB (war diary) Flanders attacked two planes and one of them dropped bombs about 200 m from the pier - no ship was damaged