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Handley Page Hermes
The Handley Page HP 81 Hermes was a British civilian airliner built by Handley Page in the 1940s and 50s. Closely related to Handley Page's Hastings military transport, the Hermes was a low-wing monoplane powered by four piston engines. 29 were built, serving briefly with BOAC in the early 1950s and later with several charter airlines.
Contents
Design and development
The Hermes was built to meet the 1944 Air Ministry specification for a pressurised civil transport capable of carrying 34 first-class or 50 tourist-class passengers, at the same time as the RAF required a new transport to replace its Handley Page Halifaxs, for which Handley Page designed the very similar Handley Page Hastings.[1] Unlike the tail-wheel Hastings, the Hermes was planned to have a nose wheel undercarriage, although the first two prototypes, of which the first was an unpressurised "bare shell" and the second to be pressurised and fully equipped.[2] It was intended to introduce the Hermes before the Hastings, but production was delayed after the first prototype (HP 68 Hermes 1), registered G-AGSS crashed on its maiden flight on 2 December, 1945.[3] Development of the civil Hermes was delayed to resolve the instability that caused the accident to the first prototype, and the chance was taken to lengthen the second prototype, producing the HP 74 Hermes II (G-AGUB), first flying on 2 September 1947.[1]
Meanwhile, orders were placed on 4 February 1947 for 25 of the definitive HP 81 Hermes IV, fitted with a tricycle undercarriage and powered by 2,100 hp (1,570 kW) Bristol Hercules 763 engines, for BOAC and two HP Hermes V, powered by the Bristol Theseus turboprop engines.[4]
Operational history
Airline operations
While the first Hermes IV (registered G-AKFP) flew on 5 September 1948,[1] and production built up quickly, the early aircraft were overweight, partly due to the use of Hastings components, and were initially rejected by BOAC.[5]
The Hermes IV finally entered service with BOAC on 6 August 1950, taking over from the Avro York on the West Africa service to Accra via Tripoli, Kano and Lagos, with services to Kenya and South Africa commencing before the end of the year.[6] The Hermes IV was used by BOAC on routes to West and South Africa. They were quickly replaced, however by the reliable Canadair Argonaut in 1952, although some re-entered service in July 1954 following the grounding of the de Havilland Comet, being retired again in December.[7]
This was not the end of the Hermes in airline service, however, as surplus aircraft were sold to independent charter airlines, with Airwork purchasing four in 1952, with others being operated by Britavia and Skyways, particularly in the trooping role.[8] Many of these aircraft were fitted with Hercules 773 engines which could run on lower octane fuel than the original Hercules 763s, being designated as Hermes IVA, returning to Hermes IV standards when fuel supplies improved.[8] The last Hermes, flown by Air Links Limited, was retired on 13 December 1964, and was scapped nine days later.[9]
Development aircraft
The two turboprop Hermes V were owned by the Ministry of Supply and made their first flights in August 1949. They were used for development of the Theseus engine. The first was lost in a wheel-up landing at Chilbolton airfield on 10 April 1951, but the second continued development flying with the A&AEE at Boscombe Down and the RAE at Farnborough until retirement in September 1953. The prototype Hermes II was given military markings in October 1953 as VX234 and was used for various research and development programmes, including the testing of airborne radars for the Royal Radar Establishment at Defford, Worcestershire, being finally retired in 1969, the last of the Hermes.[10]
The fuselage of a Hermes IV (the former BOAC aircraft G-ALDG named Horsa) is preserved at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.
Variants
All 29 aircraft were built at Radlett Aerodrome, Hertfordshire, England.
- H.P.68 Hermes 1
- Prototype powered by four 1,650 hp (1,230 kW) Bristol Hercules 101 radial engines, one built.
- H.P.74 Hermes 2
- Prototype powered by four 1,675 hp (1,249 kW) Bristol Hercules 121 engines and a 13 ft (4.57 m) longer forward fuselage, one built.
- H.P.81 Hermes 4
- Production aircraft with tricycle landing gear and powered by four 2,100 hp (1,570 kW) Bristol Hercules 763 engines, 25 built.
- H.P.81 Hermes 4A
- Hermes 4 aircraft modified to use use 100-octane fuel with the engine re-designated Hercules 773, most converted back to Hermes 4 standard.
- H.P.82 Hermes 5
- Development aircraft with four 2,490 hp (1,860 kW) Bristol Theseus 502 turboporops, two built.
Operators
- Bahamas Airways.
- Air Links
- Air Safaris
- Airwork
- Britavia
- British Overseas Airways Corporation
- Falcon Airways
- Royal Radar Establishment
- Silver City Airways
- Skyways
Accidents and Incidents
- 3 December 1945 - Hermes I G-AGSS the prototype Hermes crashed on the first test flight soon after take-off 3 miles from Radlett Aerodrome. The two Handley Page test pilots were killed.
- 26 May 1952 - Hermes IV G-ALDN (Horus), operated by BOAC, en route from Tripoli, Libya, to Kano, Nigeria, flew off-course for several hours and ran out of fuel, force landing in the Sahara Desert south of Atar, Mauritania. The passengers and crew all survived and spent several days in the desert before making their way to an oasis, where First Officer Ted Haslam, who had suffered a head injury in the crash, died.[11]
- 4 March 1956 - Hermes IV G-ALDW operated by Skyways Limited was destroyed on the ground by an explosion in the luggage compartment. The aircraft was at Nicosia Airport, Cyprus when an explosion (caused by a time-bomb) occurred 20 minutes before the aircraft was due to depart for the United Kingdom with 68 passengers.[12]
- 5 November 1956 - Hermes IVA G-ALDJ operated by Britavia crashed on night approach to Blackbushe Aerodrome, England in bad weather. Seven of the 80 occupants died.[13]
Specification (Hermes IV)
Template:Aircraft specification
See also
Related development
Comparable aircraft
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References
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jackson 1973, p.247.
- ↑ Barnes 1976, pp.437—437.
- ↑ Barnes 1976, p437.
- ↑ Barnes 1976, p.461.
- ↑ Barnes 1976, p.465.
- ↑ Jackson 1973, p.248—249.
- ↑ Jackson 1973, p.249.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Jackson 1973, p.249—250.
- ↑ Jackson 1973, p.251.
- ↑ Barnes 1976, pp.473—474.
- ↑ Fisher, John Hayes (Producer). (2003). Desert Rescue [Television series episode]. In Meet the ancestors. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.
- ↑ "Civil Aviation: Hermes Sabotage". Flight. 16 March 1956, p.306.
- ↑ ICAO Accident Digest No.8, Circular 54-AN/49 (138-147)
Bibliography
- Barnes, C. H. Handley Page Aircraft Since 1907. London: Putnam, 1976. ISBN 0 370 00030 7.
- Barnes, C. H. Handley Page Aircraft Since 1907. London: Putnam & Company, Ltd., 1987. ISBN 0-85177-803-8.
- Clayton, Donald C. Handley Page, an Aircraft Album. Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Ltd., 1969. ISBN 0-7110-0094-8.
- Donald, David (editor). The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Leicester: Blitz, 1997. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.
- Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919: Volume 2. London:Putnam, Second edition 1973. ISBN 0 370 10010 7.
External links
- Hastings at British Aircraft Directory
- Hermes
- A picture of the Hermes II prototype G-AGUB - (note: picture is mislabelled as an Avro Tudor II)
Template:Handley Page aircraft
Lists relating to aviation | |
|---|---|
| General | Timeline of aviation · Aircraft · Aircraft manufacturers · Aircraft engines · Aircraft engine manufacturers · Airports · Airlines |
| Military | Air forces · Aircraft weapons · Missiles · Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) · Experimental aircraft |
| Notable incidents and accidents | Military aviation · Airliners · General aviation · Famous aviation-related deaths |
| Records | Flight airspeed record · Flight distance record · Flight altitude record · Flight endurance record · Most produced aircraft |
| This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Handley Page Hermes". |
