Handley Page Hampden

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The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force. With the Whitley and Wellington the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and the first 1,000-plane raid on Cologne. The newest of the three medium bombers, the Hampden, known as the "Flying Suitcase," was still unsuited to the modern air war and, after operating mainly at night, it was retired from Bomber Command service in late 1942.

Contents

1 Development
2 Operational history
3 Variants
4 Specifications (Mk I)

4.1 General characteristics
4.2 Performance
4.3 Armament

5 Operators
6 References
7 Related content
8 See also

Development

Handley Page designed the Hampden to the same specification as the Wellington (Air Ministry Specification B.9/32) and the first prototype flew on June 21, 1936. The first production batch of 180 Mk I Hampdens was built to specification 30/36. No. 49 Squadron received the first Hampdens in September 1938 and 226 were in operation with eight squadrons at the start of the war.

Operational history

The Mk I had a crew of four; pilot, navigator/bomb aimer, radio operator and rear gunner. The Hampden carried a similar bomb load to the other mediums (Wellington and Whitley) but was almost as fast as the Blenheim yet could carry four times the payload over twice the range. Conceived as a fast, manoeuvrable "fighting bomber", the Hampden had a fixed .303-in Vickers K machine gun in the forward fuselage. To avoid the weight penalties of powered-turrets, the Hampden had a curved Perspex nose fitted with a manual .303-in Vickers K gun and two more single Vickers K installations in the rear upper and lower positions. The guns were thoroughly inadequate for defence so by 1940 the Lewis guns had been replaced by twin Vickers K guns.

Despite its speed and agility, the Hampden was no match for Luftwaffe fighters so its career as a day bomber was brief. It continued to operate at night, on bombing raids over Germany and mine-laying (code-named "gardening") in the North Sea. After being withdrawn from Bomber Command in 1942, it operated with Coastal Command through 1943 as a long-range torpedo bomber (the Hampden TB Mk I with a Mk XII torpedo in an open bomb-bay and a single 500 lb (227 kg) bomb under each wing) and a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. No. 144 Squadron RAF and No. 455 Squadron RAF were involved in the escort of Convoy PQ-18 operating out of Soviet airbases and left their 23 aircraft in the USSR afterwards. These were then used by the 3rd squadron of the 24MTAP (Anti-shipping Wing) of the Soviet Navy until at least 1943. The Hampden was also used by the RCAF and the RNZAF.

1430 Hampdens were built, 500 by Handley Page, 770 by English Electric and in 1940-41, 160 in Canada by Canadian Associated Aircraft.

According to Harry Moyle, author of The Hampden File, almost half of the Hampdens built -- 714 -- were lost on operations, taking with them 1,077 crew killed and another 739 missing. German flak accounted for 108; one became the victim of a German barrage balloon; 263 Hampdens crashed due to "a variety of causes," and 214 others went missing. Luftwaffe pilots claimed 128 Hampdens, shooting down 92 at night.

Apparently two Hampdens remain. One awaits reconstruction in Great Britain; it crashed into a mountain in Sweden in 1942. The other is being reconstructed largely from parts of a Hampden (the last one built in Canada) which were recovered from 600 feet of water in Saanich Inlet on Vancouver Island in 1989. The aircraft was ditched on a training flight in 1942 when the pilot lost control after a torpedo drop. As of writing, the reconstruction of the Hampden is about 85 per cent complete; it is the showpiece exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley, British Columbia, in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver.

Variants

The Hampden was powered by a pair of 980 hp Bristol Pegasus XVIII 9-cylinder radial engines. A Mk II Hampden was developed as the HP.62 by converting two Hampdens to use the 1,000 hp Wright Cyclone engine in 1940 but no more was done of the project.

In 1936 the RAF had also ordered 150 variants of the Hampden, designated the HP.53 Hereford. These were powered by a pair of 1,000 hp Napier Dagger VIII 24-cylinder H-type air-cooled inline engines but problems with them resulted in most of those built (by Short & Harland) being re-engined as Hampdens. The surviving Herefords served in training units only.

A Hampden built from a crashed machine and parts of two others survives in Canada

Specifications (Mk I)

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General characteristics

Crew: 4
Length: 53 ft 7 in (16.33 m)
Wingspan: 69 ft 2 in (21.98 m)
Height: 14 ft 4 in (4.37 m)
Wing area: 688 ft² (63.9 m²)
Weight
*Empty: 11,780 lb (5,344 kg)
*Loaded: 18,756 lb (8,508 kg)
*Maximum takeoff: lb ( kg)
Powerplant: 2 x Bristol Pegasus XVIII 9-cylinder radial engines,980 hp (730 kW) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 265 mph at 15,500 ft (410 km/h at 4,724 m)
Range: 1,095 miles (1,762 km)
Service ceiling: 19,000 ft (5,790 m)
Rate of climb: 980 ft/min (300 m/min)
Wing loading: 27.3 lb/ft² (133 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.104 hp/lb (0.172 kW/kg)

Armament

4 to 6 x .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K machine guns. one flexible and one fixed in the nose, one or two each in dorsal and ventral positions
4,000 lb (1,814 kg) bombs or 1 x 18 in torpedo or mines

Operators

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom

References

Donald, D, Lake J. (eds.) (1996) Encyclopedia of world military aircraft. AIRtime Publishing. ISBN 1880588242
Gunston, B. (1995) Classic World War II Aircraft Cutaways. Osprey. ISBN 1855325268
Mondey, D. (1982) The Hamyln concise guide to British aircraft of World War II. Hamlyn/Aerospace. ISBN 0600349519
Moyle, Harry. (1989) The Hampden File. Tonbridge: Air-Britain Historians Ltd.