Handley Page Hampden

The development of Hampden was initiated by specification B.9 / 32 issued in October 1932 by the British Air Ministry for the creation of a day twin-engine bomber. The firms Bristol , Gloucester , Handley Page and Vickers presented their proposals. The last two became winners, and on May 29, 1933 they received an order for the construction of prototypes. The Vickers bomber, which later became Wellington , was built almost in parallel with the Handley Page HP. 52 - for the first time, the Handley Page prototype with serial number K4240 was taken up by the chief pilot of the company J. Courds on June 21, 1936 , only 6 days after the first flight Vickers prototype.

The aircraft, created under the leadership of chief designer Gustav Lachmann , had a very narrow fuselage , in front of which the crew was located, and a two-keel tail unit was attached to a long beam. It was originally planned to equip the aircraft with Rolls-Royce Goshock engines , which allowed it to meet the strict weight limit imposed by the Geneva Convention on Disarmament , but after the failure of the adoption of this convention and the removal of the empty weight limit, the designers equipped the new aircraft with more powerful and heavy Bristol engines Pegasus VIII.

After the first series of tests, in July 1936, the Hampden prototype was shown at the Hendon Air Show, and was presented to King Edward VIII , among other new machines, on July 6. During further tests, a series of flight accidents occurred with the prototype - on November 5, due to a failure to signal landing gear landing, the plane hit the ground, and on January 13, 1937, a detached screw cut through the fuselage behind the pilot's seat.

The composition of the small arms of the aircraft repeatedly changed, the mechanized towers did not fit in the narrow fuselage, I had to confine myself to two hand-held turrets with coaxial machine guns “303 Vickers K ”, to protect the rear hemisphere and two more such machine guns in the nose - course and in the navigator’s cabin.

A prototype for production aircraft was the second prototype, which had a more smoothed fuselage shape, while small arms were limited to single machine guns so far. The aircraft received their name “Hampden” in honor of John Hampden , the defender of civil liberties of the 17th century, while observing the tradition of calling the Royal Air Force bombers city names.

Hempden is a mid - plane with a narrow and long fuselage, advantageous in terms of aerodynamics . Metal skin, except for ailerons and elevators having a metal frame and linen sheathing. The trapezoidal horizontal tail and two small keels are placed on a thin tail boom. Because of their unusual appearance, the Hampden gained a lot of nicknames - Flying Tadpole, Frying Pan Handle, and Flying Suitcase.

The single-span free-wing wing has a trapezoidal plan and is equipped with powerful mechanization - automatic slats and single-slot flaps - providing excellent takeoff and landing characteristics. The wing span engines are located as close to the fuselage as possible to reduce the turning moment. Screws - De Havilland-Hamilton-Standard, variable pitch. The three-post chassis with a tail wheel, for the first time on Handley Page planes made retractable. 6 fuel tanks with a total capacity of 2970 liters are located in the wing. Unusual for its time was the technological division of the airframe, which was assembled from fully assembled separate interchangeable modular sections, which made it possible to assemble the aircraft from separate subassemblies produced by different manufacturers.

The crew of 4 people: the pilot, the navigator-scorer and 2 gunners, turned out to be tightly “packed” in a tight narrow fuselage, and the navigator-scorer, who was sitting next to the pilot, could not help or replace him in case of injury or death.

HP.52

The first prototype, serial number K4240.

HP.52 Hampden B Mk I

1,430 aircraft. The only mass-produced modification.

HP.52 Hampden B Mk II

one Canadian-made aircraft, serial number X3115, with American Wright Cyclone engines . Was converted to Hampden B Mk I.

HP.53

one aircraft equipped with Napier Dagger engines, serial number L7271. It was built by order of the Swedish government, served as a prototype for Handley Page HP.52 Hirford ( Eng. Handley Page HP.52 Hereford ), in Sweden was delivered serial Hampden.

HP.52 Hirford B Mk I

150 aircraft. Virtually no different from Hampden, with the exception of Napier Dagger engines. Used only for educational purposes, 20 aircraft were converted to Hampden.

On September 3, 1939, the Royal Air Force was armed with 169 Hampden. From the first day of the war, they were used to search for the Kriegsmarine ships, together with Whitley patrolled over German seaplane bases to prevent them from setting minefields in harbors and estuaries in England, and vice versa, they set up magnetic mines weighing 907 kg (2000 lb) in coastal waters of Germany.

The first clash with enemy fighters occurred on September 29 : two groups of the 144th squadron with a total of 11 vehicles were intercepted by Messerschmitts Bf.109E during the attack of German destroyers in Helgoland Bay - all 5 aircraft of the first group were lost, the second group managed to fight back and return without loss to the base. In subsequent flights, the damage was just as great, the lack of defensive weapons affected, which by December 1939 forced to use the Hemden only at night. The number of losses fell sharply, for example, during the operation "Nickel" - dropping leaflets in Germany - the Hampden made 123 sorties, losing only one plane.

After the defeat of France and the beginning of the Wehrmacht’s preparations for Operation Sea Lion, the main target of the British bombers was the accumulation of ships in the ports of Belgium and France. At the same time, attacks on German territory continued and intensified. On the night of August 26, 1940, 14 Armstrong Whitworth Whitley , 12 Hampden and 9 Wellington launched the first bombing attack on Berlin during World War II. At dawn on July 2, the Hampden, flying officer Guy Gibson (who later became the commander of the famous 617th Dumbasters squadron ), dropped the 907 kg bomb on the Scharnhorst battlecruiser , which was stationed in the port of Kiel , for the first time, but the bomb did not hit the target. On May 30–31, 1942, the Hampden participated in the first “raid of a thousand bombers” in Cologne on May 30–31, 1942 . A total of 714 Hampdenov were lost, crews lost 1,077 people dead and 739 missing.

The Hemden crews received two Victoria Crosses - the highest British award. The first received flight lieutenant Roderick Lira from the 49th squadron for destroying the aqueduct on the Dortmund-Ems Canal at night from August 12 to 13, the second received sergeant John Khan from the 83rd squadron for extinguishing the fire on the night of September 15-16 board, which allowed the damaged aircraft to return to base.

On the initiative of the commander of the 5th group of Air Commodore Arthur Harris (who later became the head of the Bomber Command ), the rear single machine guns on the Hampden were replaced by twin mounts, over time this extended to all Hampden.

After the removal of the Hampdenov from the armament of the Bomber Command in 1942, they were used by the Coast Command as a long-range torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft under the designation TB Mk.I and carried one torpedo in the bomb bay with the wings removed.

In the fall of 1942, the Hampden from the 144th and 455th squadrons were sent to the USSR to the Vaenga airfield near Murmansk to ensure the wiring of the PQ-18 caravan . Later, squadron personnel returned to the UK, and the remaining 23 Hampden on October 12 entered service with the 24th mine torpedo aviation regiment. Lack of spare parts and combat losses reduced the number of combat-ready vehicles, and by June 1943 they remained in service with only the 3rd squadron of the 24th MTAP, on which July 4, 1943 made their last combat mission on the Soviet-German front .

After serving in Europe, about 200 Hampden were sent to Canada , where they were used for training purposes.

To this day, not a single original Hampden has been preserved, although one aircraft was stored in the 71st technical unit, but in 1955 it was scrapped.

• Hampden (serial number P1344) from vehicles sent to the USSR is undergoing restoration in the UK. The plane was shot down in 1942, found in 1991 and is now being restored by the Royal Air Force Museum .
• Another Hampden assembled from parts of various aircraft (mainly Hampden under serial number P5436) is located in Canada, at the Canadian Flight Museum in Langley, British Columbia . The Hampden P5436, built in Canada, fell into the sea from a height of 200 meters on November 15, 1942 near Vancouver Island , flying about 100 hours, and was raised in 1989. During the restoration, the details of two more Hampden crashed in Canada were used. As of 2007, the car was almost restored, but in January 2009, during a heavy snowfall, the wing of the aircraft could not withstand the weight of a large amount of snow and cracked, damaging a window with parts of the original engine when it fell. Currently, the museum is raising funds for the restoration of the aircraft.

Specifications

• Crew : 4
• Length : 16.32 m
• Wing span : 21.08 m
• Height : 4.53 m
• Empty weight: 5343 kg
• Normal take-off weight: 8508 kg
• Maximum take-off weight : 9525 kg
• The mass of fuel in internal tanks: 1440 kg (2476 liters)
• Powerplant : 2 × piston single-row radial Bristol Pegasus XVIII
• Engine power: 2 × 980 hp (2 × 730 kW)

Flight characteristics

• Maximum speed: 426 km / h at an altitude of 4720 m
• Cruising speed : 349 km / h at an altitude of 4720 m
• Combat radius: 1,762 km
• Practical ceiling : 6920 m
• Rate of climb : 298 m / min
• Wing load: 133 kg / m²

Armament

• Bombs : up to 1814 kg on the internal suspension

in the version of the torpedo bomber TB Mk.I - one Mk.XII torpedo on the internal suspension and 2 bombs of 113 kg caliber under the wings

• Handley Page Hampden at Sky Corner
• Handley Page Hampden at cofe.ru
• Handley Page Hampden coloring schemes on the WING PALETTE website

• Kotelnikov V.R. Aviation Lend-Lease. - M .: Russian Knights Foundation, 2015. - 368 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 985-5-9906036-3-9.
• Kotelnikov V.R. Handley-Page bomber “Hampden” (Russian) // Aviation collection: magazine. - 2007. - No. 10 .
• War in the Air No. 147 Handley Page Hampden