Handley Page H.P.51
| H.P.51 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Bomber-transport |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Handley Page |
| Designer | G.V. Lachmann |
| First flight | 8 May 1935 |
| Number built | 1 |
| Developed from | Handley Page H.P.43 |
| Variants | Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow |
The Handley Page H.P.51 was a monoplane conversion of the earlier, unsuccessful biplane bomber-transport aircraft, the Handley Page H.P.43. The Air Ministry ordered the production variant off the drawing board as the Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow bomber.
When Air Ministry specification C.16/28 for a multi-engined bomber transport failed to produce a satisfactory replacement for the Vickers Victoria, the Ministry turned to monoplane designs.Specification C.26/31 called for a twin-engined monoplane capable of carrying 24 soldiers and their gear over a range of 920 ml (1,480 km) at a speed of more than 95 mph (153 km/h). Handley Page, having had useful experience of constructing single-spar monoplane wings for their unsuccessful H.P.47 general-purpose bomber, realised that they could marry the fuselage of their failed contender for C.16/28, the H.P.43, to a monoplane wing. The result was designated the H.P.51.
It was a high-wing cantilever monoplane with the wing meeting the fuselage at the same position as the lower wing of the H.P.43 but without the inboard anhedral. The wing had a similar tapered planform to that of the H.P.47, though much bigger with a span of 90 ft rather than 58 ft. The H.P.47's wing construction used a single central spar forming the rear of a stressed skin torsion box forward to the leading edge and the confirmation of its design assumptions by stress tests at the RAE allowed a similar approach for the new aircraft. The H.P.51 wings were of thick RAF 34 section, and like the H.P.47 were fabric-covered behind the spar. There were leading edge slats on the outer half of the wing with fabric-covered ailerons and inboard slotted flaps on the trailing edge. The undercarriage legs of the H.P.51 were longer than those of the H.P.43 because there was no anhedral wing section: the main legs went vertically to the spar just behind the engine mounting and were each braced to the fuselage with a pair of struts from top and bottom of the leg. The resulting landing gear had a wide track, with legs in streamlined fairings and the wheels in spats.
...
Wikipedia