Shipbucket

Great work, though I'd be tempted to work a bit more on the cockpit windows.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/svp_Jv4jabs/maxresdefault.jpg

how long have that family of design been in service!?! Nice drawing

Nice model. I wish I had the patience to have constructed a work of love like that, but it's cockpit proportions are a little out.
But I agree, so tweaked the upper glazing.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-imper ... 48460.html

H.P.43

Concurrently with the H.P.42, HP also designed a smaller 3-engined aircraft for Imperial Airways' 3-engined tenders. However with the H.P.42 Imperial soon lost interest in a smaller sibling as well.



The design was not lost though, as the Air Ministry then put a 3-engined bomber/transport out to tender. With their experience in reconfiguring civil aircraft to military duties modifying the design was fairly straight forward, however the military preferred the "old standard" of fabric surfaces and gauze mesh windows and so these were also added.



However by the time its construction was complete in 1932, the military were looking for a monoplane rather than a biplane which was placed for tender already in 1931. The H.P.43's performance was poor, but HP hoped to save the project by converting it to a monoplane.

Monoplane conversions

While working on modifying the H.P.43 biplane to become the H.P.51 monoplane for the Air Ministry, HP also tendered an airliner model to Imperial Airways. A delivery price or date could not be agreed on, so the design remained on the drawing board.



Early in 1933 Imperial Airways requested two additional H.P.42's with improvements including wheel spats and enclosed engines and modified wings, but without a reduction in payload. HP found this to not be possible, and instead proposed building a similar monoplane conversion of the H.P.42 for the new aircraft and a progressive modification for the already flying aircraft. Imperial Airways baulked at the price quoted for the new aircraft, which was double what the initial price had been in 1931. Instead Imperial bought two Short Kent landplane conversions.



Due to the low speed of the H.P.42, no military model of either biplane or monoplane was considered.

H.P.51

With the failure of the H.P.43, the issuing of a specification for a similar monoplane bomber-transport allowed HP to rework the aerodynamics of the potentially successful airframe. With the use of a wider single wing the fuselage was extended by almost a metre. This also changed the airflow over the tailplane, but due to financial difficulties at HP no modification to the tail was permitted.



The aircraft was a vast improvement on the original H.P.43, and HP started designing a full production version to be the H.P.54.
However testing showed that the tail was unacceptable, and a revised tail that designers had modelled on their own time in secret was installed instead. The H.P.51 was used as a prototype for the H.P.54, and then passed to Flight Refuelling Ltd for airborne refueling trials, before reverting to the RAF for general test flying until 1940.

Fantastic additions!

H.P.54 Harrow

With the H.P.51 as it's prototype, the H.P.54 Harrow went straight into production after Hitler's 1935 statement that the Luftwaffe was already 30% larger than British intelligence had estimated, even though it was acknowledged to be outdated in terms of front-line service.



The Harrow was to bomber with a secondary role as standby transport. It was planned for quick manufacture, using American automobile manufacturing techniques of component sub-assembly and final completion - allowing HP to gear up to become a major aircraft manufacturer.
The initial Harrows were delivered without turrets, and features like anti-icing and steam-heating were progressively added to production aircraft. Late production aircraft with upgraded engines were designated as Harrow Mk.II's.
Squadron delivery started in January 1937, and they remained in service as night bombers until the end of 1939, when they were replaced by Wellington bombers, and used as transports and as trainers. They did not see active service as bombers.
One interesting role undertaken was that of five aircraft used as night fighters. The aircraft were rigged to carry "Long Aerial Mines" for Operation Mutton. These were explosive charges attached by a 2000ft length of piano wire to a small parachute designed to be dropped above and ahead of an approaching bomber force. The trials were inconclusive, and so the planned Douglas DB-7 Havoc-Pandora aircraft which would have formed a planned defensive force were not acquired.



Three aircraft were transferred to Flight Refuelling Ltd in 1938, and were used for refuelling Empire flying boats on the Britain-Canada route. With the start of hostilities the service was suspended, and the two aircraft in Canada were impressed into the RCAF with one flying and the other being used for spares.

H.P.54 Harrow transports

After withdrawal from bomber duties, many Harrows became transports. Some retained their turrets, but some were given nose and tail fairings. The first aircraft so modified was nicknamed "Sparrow" by its crew, the name stuck and became the unofficial name for all modified Harrows. They performed stirling service, and with D-day they were equipped as ambulances for front-line evacuations.



With the Luftwaffe's final assault at the Battle of the Bulge, most of the assembled Sparrows were destroyed on the ground. The last remaining aeroplane returned to Britain in 1945 for maintenance, and was still on active service on VE-Day. This aircraft was one of the very few individual aeroplanes to have been on front-line service from the beginning of the war until war's end.

As someone with a soft spot for Handley Page aircraft, I have to say how great it is to see these represented in FD scale.

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