Shipbucket

W.8d Hyderabad

Swords into ploughshares into swords, a constant theme of HP aircraft development.
Developed from the W.8c for a 1922 RAF tender, the Hyderabad entered service as a successful night bomber.

W.9

A second 1922 tender called for a 3-engined derivative for a Middle Eastern military or civil transport. No prototypes were ordered against the contract, but the obvious advantages of a 3-engine layout over undeveloped terrain led to further interest from both British and Belgian authorities.

W.8 three-engine airliners

Using the data from the unsuccessful W.9, a 3-engined variant of the W.8c was produced for SABENA for their European and Congo services as the W.8e, and the design was then licence built in Belgium. The aircraft had 2 small engines in the wing, and a larger engine in the nose - rather than 3 identical engines. A single aircraft was produced for Imperial Airways as the W.8f Hamilton. Testing showed that this mixed engine layout was not ideal, and so the W.9 was again brought back to the design table.
Later in its life the sole W.8f was rebuilt to the then current W.10 standard, but redesignated as a the sole type W.8g

Awesome!

W.9a Hampstead

Rather than being the "new" aircraft of the original W.9, the W.9a was an upgrade to the military Hyderabad with an extended wingspan for more lift and moving the propeller discs apart to remove the vibration apparent in the W.8f.



After initial flight testing it was found that the rudder suffered from excessive snatch from the airflow from the central engine, a problem that had been already noticed on the W.8f and caused difficulty for accurate bomb aiming on the Hyderabad.
Consideration was given to a V/1500 style triple rudder, but a simple flat rudder was wind tunnel tested and fitted and test flown. The test flying revealled that the new fin was too large, evidently the wind tunnel model had been made with too short a fuselage, so the fin was cropped back. The new fin was then adopted as the standard, and retro-fitted to all still flying civil W.8's and military Hyderabads.
The W.9a gave excellent service for Imperial Airways, and on retirement was sold to New Guinea to operate into the mountains to Wau, finally being written-off after crashing in 1930.

W.10

Concurrently with the W.9a development, Imperial airways became short of multi-engine aircraft for cross-Channel services, and so placed an urgent order with HP for an improved version of the W.8.



As a rapid redesign, a civil version of the Hyderabad was created by splicing the forward section of the W.8 to the Hyderabad to create the W.10. Other changes made the aircraft suitable for airline service, and four aircraft were able to entre service with the W.9a.
The W.10's were retired from Imperial Airways in 1933, and sold to Cobham for joyriding and inflight refueling trials. Both aircraft were positioned to provide fuel for Cobham's Airspeed Courier for its attempt on a nonstop flight to India, which failed due to mechanical problems with the Courier.

Great work! Nice to see that my little Courier was also useful here.

This is a truly great series.

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

China - Handley Page O/7

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Worklist:
- Victorian Navy - LINK
- ROC/Taiwan - 中華民國空軍 / 陸軍航特部 / 海軍航空兵 - LINK
- RHKAAF / HKGFS - 皇家香港輔助空軍 / 政府飛行服務隊
- Gunbucket - LINK

天滅中共全黨死清光!

A true gem, this thread, and apart from the great drawings, it is very informative.
Very well done

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"