Shipbucket

Great work! I really appreciate the effort to show all
of the different versions of this aircraft.

Worderful work and very informative also.

Speechless, just amazing

Fantastic series! Great to see it done and I'm looking forward to see more!

I can't accuse it of being an attractive aircraft, but these are lovely drawings.

Type V

With German bombing of London in July 1917, HP was asked to produce a bomber capable of carrying a load double that of the O/400. Initially to be fitted with 600hp Condor engines, the V/1200 design included a rear defensive gun.



With the Condor being not available, the design was reworked to take 4 smaller Eagle engines. Using the technical information gained from the earlier 4-engine O/400, this major modification progressed quickly and necessitated changing the straight wing to a swept-back wing.



The engines were uncowled for the first prototype, but an airship-style armoured cowling was trialled on the second prototype, as was a streamlined rear fairing. Due to the performance loses, both feature were not continued into development. However rudders were a problem and were eventually increased in size for production aircraft.
Deliveries of the V/1500 was delayed due to modifications on the production line, and only 3 aircraft were deployed to France by early November 1918. A first bombing raid to Berlin was delayed due to bad weather on the night of 9/10 November, and the raid then planned for 11/12 November - being cancelled with the Armistice.
The V/1500 was not flown in combat in WW1, and with the end of the war this massive aircraft had no place in the new world and so the construction contracts were cancelled. However one aircraft conducted a long-range flight to India, and while there intervened in the 1919 Afghan rebellion, bombing the arsenal in Kabul - the only warlike action conducted by a V/1500.
An attempt was made at the first crossing of the Atlanic in a V/1500, but due to unserviceabilities Alcock and Brown famously flew their Vickers Vimy first. The V/1500 did get to America, and conducted a series of commercial demonstration flights there.

Type V transport

In 1920 HP revisited the Type V with the now available Condor engines for a long-range bomber and a 25 passenger military transport.
This project was determined to be too large and too expensive to operate in the austere early 20's, and the smaller Vickers Virginia and Victoria were instead produced.

Excellent! Keep it up!

Type W development aircraft

To make a genuine passenger aircraft, HP took the O/400 back to the drawing board. Using an O/400 that had been used in V/1500 development, various features of the new civil aircraft - designated Type W - were progressively added to the machine now designated as the sole W/400.

W.8 twin-engine airliners

The initial prototype W.8 (potentially sequential from the O/7) was first flown in December 1919, but engine delays that seem rather difficult to comprehend from today's viewpoint were to almost scuttle the design. Initially planned with Cosmos Jupiter engines, with the end of the war they were no longer available, and so a pair of Lions had to be loaned from the Air Ministry to allow the aircraft to fly. On the 4th of December the W.8 was flown to Le Bourget to attend the 6th Aviation Exhibition. The aircraft attended several other exhibitions, including for the King of the Belgians - which would later bear fruit for HP. However as the engines were on loan, no revenue operations could be made. A second aircraft, designated W.8a, with several modifications and the original Jupiter engines was planned and windtunnel tested, but with the loaner engines returned, and no revenue to afford purchasing new engines the W.8a was cancelled.
A novel design feature of the W.8 was portholes in the floor, but they proved unpopular with passengers and were soon removed.





Eventually lower powered Eagle engines became available, and construction began on the W.8b with fuel tanks now mounted above the wings and without engine cowlings.
The Belgians took great interest in the W.8, and bought and licence-produced W.8b's and further improved W.8c's for Sabena in Europe and the Congo.
The Handley Page W.8's eventually passed into Imperial Airways on its formation in 1924, and continued in service into the early 1930's.