Shipbucket

Sorry for the delay, this has taken a bit longer than planned.
Starting off as researching the Bristol Freighter, this took a turn towards the similar British post-war designs and in particular the H.P.72, and then the lineage of that aircraft - and the Bristol Freighter had been sidetracked Thanks to eswube for some assistance and the new windows palette.

So a quick overview of the HP model designation system.
Initially HP sequentially named their models by alphabetic letter, starting of course at A. Some models were further differentiated with the addition of their horsepower; E/50, which eventually changed into a submodel identifier; O/7, O/10. Of course the alphabet eventually reaches it's end, and so HP continued their model naming by starting again at A. Eventually this grew too awkward, and HP finally adopted a numbering system. This time they didn't start from scratch, but retroactively renamed some of their earlier models - including some that had been well and truly scrapped by then - to the new numbering system; the type A became the H.P.1, the type R/200 became the H.P.13.

O/100 - H.P.11

Handley Page had been constructing small aircraft, until the Admiralty requested a very large seaplane design in 1914. In light of the stalemate in Flanders, HP instead offered a similar sized landplane patrol bomber. Championed by Churchill himself, the aircraft was to have 2x 150HP engines and winspan eventually reduced from 114ft to 100ft. Originally to be titled the O/300 from the horsepower, security concerned led to the design become a more non-descript O/100 named for the wingspan. An indication of what a significant leap forward this design was, is that the first flight was 12 years to the day from the Wright brothers first flight, and the aircraft's wingspan was only slightly shorter than the length of that first flight.



The initial prototype had an enclosed cockpit, which at test-pilot request was removed.
The first production aircraft were ready for deployment at the end of 1916, but in a bizarre twist one of the aircraft initially deploying to Europe inadvertently landed at a German controlled airfield and was captured before the type had even entered combat. This aircraft was test flown in Germany by many pilots, including the Red Baron himself.
In 1917 a trial installation was made of an anti-submarine recoilless rifle. The tests were unsuccessful, but the raised front cockpit section became the standard on all subsequent aircraft.
The O/100 was original delivered in the standard P.C.10 khaki-drab, but camouflage trials were conducted at Oxfordness with a dappled colour scheme, eventually leading to the inter-war standard NIVO finish.
Several engine modifications were trialled; including the Cossack-engine "intermediate" series of aircraft, and a single four-engine O/100, before the configuration for the revised O/400 was developed.

Type S seaplane

With stalemate in the Dardanelles in 1917, the Admiralty requested a floatplane conversion for the O/100 as so much of the route to Constantinople was over water. HP was reticent about this proposal, and the design was not progressed.

O/400 H.P.12

The change to 360Hp engines that were NOT left and right handed (a first break from the Wright Brothers initial principal) and a revised fuel and bomb-load led to the upgraded O/400, which became the principal British heavy bomber. A design feature that would be used again against Germany a generation later, low-level precision night bombing was pioneered in O/400's using multiple spotlights, mounted downwards to have their beams focusing at the exact height necessary for bombing.
After the war the O/400's were used extensively for pioneering the nascent civil aviation industry.

American production O/400's

The O/400 design was also exported to the US, with production of 1000 aircraft ordered in August 1918. With the end of the war this massive contract was cancelled, with only 3 aircraft assembled in 1919. The major difference from British production was the use of Liberty 12 engines and Marlin machine guns.
In 1921 Billy Mitchell's ship bombing experiments were conducted, with an O/400 dropping the bomb that sank the ex-German battleship Ostfriesland, and later trial dropping a 4000lb bomb.

O/400 transport conversions

With the end of the war, rapid transport between Britain and the peace conferences in Europe was required. While several O/400's were used with minimum modification as passenger transports, 2 O/400's were converted to silver-coloured VIP transports. Designated "H.M. Airliners", this was the first use of this now ubiquitous term.

These are all excellent.
This is going to be a fine series. Its really nice to see you back in action and drawing again.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Very good work.

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

Type O civil models

Handley page aircraft were at the forefront of commercial aviation immediately after the First World War.
Although initially prevented from operating commercial aircraft by wartime laws, HP initially adapted O/400's to deliver newspapers by parachute from the aircrafts' bombracks. Once the law was changed in 1919 HP led in starting operations. With the change in laws HP formed a new company Handley Page Transport Ltd. This company would eventually become Imperial Airways, then BOAC, and is still operational as British Airways.
Initially even the standards for aircraft registration were not laid down, and aircraft were originally registered under their military serial numbers.
Starting with conducting joy-rides, international flights were authorized on 25-August-1919 and an O/400 was the third aircraft to depart for Paris.
A thorough remodeling for civilian operations created the O/700, renamed to O/7, the main obvious changes being moving the internal fuel tanks to behind the engine nacelles. A further modification to what we would call a "combi" interior for mail carrying with reduced passenger numbers was the O/10, with some O/11 aircraft being then modified to a full passenger compartment as the O/1O.
The civilian Type O aircraft found immediate success In Britain, and internationally within the Empire, with the most garish aircraft being supplied to the Thakur Saheb of Morvi in India; painted all over pink and internally trimmed with pink silk.

Type O seaplane

In March 1919 a seaplane version of the O/400 was planned for Mediterranean use. Several float designs were wind tunnel tested, but work on landplanes led to this design not being constructed.