Misplaced Pages

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75-419: The name Harrow was given to two aircraft manufactured by Handley Page : Handley Page H.P.31 Harrow , a two-seat single-engine torpedo-bomber biplane of the 1920s Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow , a twin-engine high-wing heavy bomber monoplane of the 1930s Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

150-408: A Short Empire for Imperial Airways from Foynes to Botwood , Newfoundland and Harold Gray piloted a Sikorsky S-42 for Pan American in the opposite direction. Both flights were a success and both airlines made a series of subsequent proving flights that same year to test out a variety of different weather conditions. Air France also became interested and began experimental flights in 1938. As

225-606: A Vickers Vimy piloted by Alcock and Brown in June of that year. The Atlantic flew into New York City via Canada on 9 October 1919, carrying the first airmail from Canada to the United States of America . In the immediate postwar years, Handley Page modified some O/400's for passenger use, which they flew on the London-Paris route as Handley Page Transport . The V/1500 was considered too large to be practical at

300-705: A de Havilland Puss Moth . In 1936 the first woman aviator to cross the Atlantic east to west, and the first person to fly solo from England to North America, was Beryl Markham . She wrote about her adventures in her memoir, West with the Night . The first transpolar transatlantic (and transcontinental) crossing was the non-stop flight  [ ru ] piloted by the crew led by Valery Chkalov covering some 8,811 kilometres (5,475 mi) over 63 hours from Moscow , Russia to Vancouver, Washington from 18–20 June 1937. On 11 October 1928, Hugo Eckener , commanding

375-684: A balloon was the Double Eagle II from Presque Isle, Maine , to Miserey , near Paris in 1978. In April 1913, the London newspaper The Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 (£568,000 in 2023 ) to the aviator who shall first cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the United States of America, Canada or Newfoundland and any point in Great Britain or Ireland" in 72 continuous hours. The competition

450-544: A crew of Spanish aviators on board Plus Ultra , a Dornier Do J flying boat; the crew was the captain Ramón Franco , co-pilot Julio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz , Teniente de Navio (Navy Lieutenant), Juan Manuel Durán, and Pablo Rada. The first transpolar flight eastbound and the first flight crossing the North Pole ever was the airship carrying Norwegian explorer and pilot Roald Amundsen on 11 May 1926. He flew with

525-580: A cruising speed of only 188 miles per hour (303 km/h). The 314s had a lounge and dining area, and the galleys were crewed by chefs from four-star hotels. Men and women were provided with separate dressing rooms, and white-coated stewards served five and six-course meals with gleaming silver service. The Yankee Clipper' s inaugural trip across the Atlantic was on 24 June 1939. Its route was from Southampton to Port Washington, New York with intermediate stops at Foynes, Ireland , Botwood, Newfoundland , and Shediac, New Brunswick . Its first passenger flight

600-424: A faster postal service between Europe and the United States. In 1931 W. Irving Glover, the second assistant postmaster, wrote an article for Popular Mechanics on the challenges and the need for a regular service. In the 1930s, under the direction of Juan Trippe , Pan American began to get interested in the feasibility of a transatlantic passenger service using flying boats. On 5 July 1937, A.S. Wilcockson flew

675-462: A larger carrier aircraft, using the combined power of both to bring the smaller aircraft to operational height, at which time the two aircraft would separate, the carrier aircraft returning to base while the other flew on to its destination. The Short Mayo Composite project, co-designed by Mayo and Shorts chief designer Arthur Gouge, comprised the Short S.21 Maia , ( G-ADHK ) which was a variant of

750-597: A massive balloon of 725,000 cubic feet (20,500 m ) called the City of New York to take off from Philadelphia in 1860, but was interrupted by the onset of the American Civil War in 1861. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle 360 hp engines, the Vickers Vimy flown by British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919. The first successful transatlantic flight in

825-475: A narrow gap which improved airflow at high angles of attack and improved low speed handling. The leading edge slat was simultaneously designed by the German aerodynamicist Gustav Lachmann , who was later employed by Handley Page. The design was so successful that licensing fees to other companies were their main source of income in the early 1920s. In 1929, Cricklewood Aerodrome was closed and Handley Page moved

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900-533: A proving flight for the development of passenger-carrying services. This was the first landplane to fulfil this function and marked a departure from the British and American reliance on flying boats for long over-water routes. Operators of the Fw 200 focussed on other routes, though. In the 1930s a flying boat route was the only practical means of transatlantic air travel, as land-based aircraft lacked sufficient range for

975-533: A testing ground for postwar commercial services by airship (see Imperial Airship Scheme ), and it was the first flight to transport paying passengers. The R34 wasn't built as a passenger carrier, so extra accommodations were arranged by slinging hammocks in the keel walkway. The return journey to Pulham in Norfolk , was from 10 to 13 July over some 75 hours. The first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic

1050-538: The Daily Mail prize for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in "less than 72 consecutive hours". There was a small amount of mail (3lb) carried on the flight making it also the first transatlantic airmail flight. The two aviators were knighted one week later by King George V at Windsor Castle . The first transatlantic flight by rigid airship , and the first return transatlantic flight,

1125-601: The Argos , a Dornier Wal flying boat. In the early morning of 20 May 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field , Mineola, New York , on his successful attempt to fly nonstop from New York to the European continental land mass. Over the next 33.5 hours, Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis encountered many challenges before landing at Le Bourget Airport near Paris , at 10:22 p.m. on 21 May 1927, completing

1200-568: The Canary Islands and Spain to Stuttgart , Germany. From December 1935, Air France opened a regular weekly airmail route between South America and Africa. German airlines experimented with mail routes over the North Atlantic in the early 1930s, with flying boats and dirigibles. In August 1938 a Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor long-range airliner flew non-stop from Berlin to New York and returned non-stop as

1275-614: The Fall of France in June 1940, and the loss of much war materiel on the continent, the need for the British to purchase replacement materiel from the United States was urgent. Airbases for refuelling were built in Greenland and Iceland , which were occupied by the United States after the German invasion of Denmark (1940) . The British and United States Governments hurried a secret agreement before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 for

1350-819: The First World War , Handley Page produced a series of heavy bombers for the Royal Navy to bomb the German Zeppelin yards, with the ultimate intent of bombing Berlin in revenge for the Zeppelin attacks on London. Handley Page had been asked by the Admiralty to produce a "bloody paralyser of an aeroplane". These aircraft included the O/100 of 1915, the O/400 of 1918 and the four-engined V/1500 with

1425-705: The HP.52 Hampden bomber, which took part in the first British raid on Berlin. In response to a 1936 government request for heavier, longer ranged aircraft, Handley Page tendered the HP.56 design powered by twin Rolls-Royce Vultures and this was ordered, along with what became the Avro Manchester . However the Vulture proved so troublesome that – years before the engine was abandoned by Rolls-Royce in 1940 –

1500-526: The Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda (640 miles off Cape Hatteras , North Carolina ), which began serving both Imperial Airways, subsequently renamed British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and Pan American World Airways (PAA) flights from the United States in 1936, but began exploring the possibility of using it for transatlantic flights from 1937. PAA would begin scheduled trans-Atlantic flights via Bermuda before Imperial Airways did, enabling

1575-719: The Pathfinder Force , led the first delivery flight in November 1940. In 1941, MAP took the operation off CPR to put the whole operation under the Atlantic Ferry Organization ("Atfero"), which was set up by Morris W. Wilson, a banker in Montreal . Wilson hired civilian pilots to fly the aircraft to the UK. The pilots were then ferried back in converted RAF Liberators . "Atfero hired the pilots, planned

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1650-624: The R101 disaster in October 1930, the British rigid airship program was abandoned and the R100 scrapped, leaving DELAG as the sole remaining operator of transatlantic passenger airship flights. In 1936 DELAG began passenger flights with LZ 129 Hindenburg , and made 36 Atlantic crossings (North and South). The first passenger trip across the North Atlantic left Friedrichshafen on 6 May with 56 crew and 50 passengers, arriving at Lakehurst on 9 May. The fare

1725-513: The RAF before they could begin civilian operation with the onset of World War II . Meanwhile, Pan Am bought nine Boeing 314 Clippers in 1939, a long-range flying boat capable of flying the Atlantic . The "Clippers" were built for "one-class" luxury air travel, a necessity given the long duration of transoceanic flights. The seats could be converted into 36 bunks for overnight accommodation; with

1800-558: The Short "C-Class" Empire flying-boat fitted with a trestle or pylon on the top of the fuselage to support the Short S.20 Mercury ( G-ADHJ ). The first successful in-flight separation of the Composite was carried out on 6 February 1938, and the first transatlantic flight was made on 21 July 1938 from Foynes to Boucherville . Mercury , piloted by Captain Don Bennett , separated from her carrier at 8 pm to continue what

1875-529: The United Kingdom . The whole journey took 23 days, with six stops along the way. A trail of 53 "station ships" across the Atlantic gave the aircraft points to navigate by. This flight was not eligible for the Daily Mail prize since it took more than 72 consecutive hours and also because more than one aircraft was used in the attempt. Four teams were competing for the first non-stop flight across

1950-466: The airship Graf Zeppelin as part of DELAG 's operations, began the first non-stop transatlantic passenger flights, leaving Friedrichshafen , Germany, at 07:54 on 11 October 1928, and arriving at NAS Lakehurst , New Jersey , on 15 October. Thereafter, DELAG used the Graf Zeppelin on regularly scheduled passenger flights across the North Atlantic, from Frankfurt-am-Main to Lakehurst. In

2025-488: The 100 in O/100 indicated the type's 100-foot wingspan, while other designs it may or may not have been meaningful other than as a design sequence. By 1923, the company had come to the end of the alphabet and had begun reusing earlier letters, but this would have become confusing, so from 1924 they assigned the letters HP and a sequential number to indicate the model, with previous aircraft being retroactively assigned numbers in

2100-613: The Air Staff decided that the HP.56 should be fitted with four engines instead. Therefore, before reaching the prototype stage, the HP.56 design was reworked into the four-engined HP.57 Halifax . The Halifax became the second most-prolific British heavy bomber of the war after the Avro Lancaster (itself essentially a four-engine development of the Manchester). Although in some respects (such as crew survivability) better than

2175-433: The Atlantic were made by Empire flying boats, with 15 crossings using FRL's aerial refuelling system. After the 16 crossings more trials were suspended due to the outbreak of World War II. The Short S.26 was built in 1939 as an enlarged Short Empire , powered by four 1,400 hp (1,044 kW) Bristol Hercules sleeve valve radial engines and designed with the capability of crossing the Atlantic without refuelling. It

2250-549: The Atlantic. They were Australian pilot Harry Hawker with observer Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve in a single-engine Sopwith Atlantic ; Frederick Raynham and C. W. F. Morgan in a Martinsyde ; the Handley Page Group, led by Mark Kerr; and the Vickers entry John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown. Each group had to ship its aircraft to Newfoundland and make a rough field for the takeoff. Hawker and Mackenzie-Grieve made

2325-674: The Lancaster, the Halifax suffered in terms of altitude performance and was redeployed toward the end of the war as a heavy transport and glider tug, with several variants being specifically built as such, including the HP.70 Halton. After the war, the British Government sought tenders for jet bombers to carry the nation's nuclear deterrent . The three types produced were known as the V-Bombers , and Handley Page's contribution

Handley Page Harrow - Misplaced Pages Continue

2400-669: The Royal Air Force, and the Darrell's Island airport, which the Royal Air Force took over for trans-Atlantic ferrying of flying boats such as the Catalinas , which were flown there from United States factories to be tested before acceptance by the Air Ministry and delivery across the Atlantic, usually on direct flights to Greenock , Scotland . RAF Transport Command flights, such as those flown by Coronados , also utilised

2475-514: The Short Empire flying boat was less than that of the equivalent US Sikorsky "Clipper" flying boats and as such was initially unable to provide a true trans-Atlantic service. Two flying boats ( Caledonia and Cambria ) were lightened and given long-range tanks to increase the aircraft's range to 3,300 miles (5,300 km). In the US, attention was at first focused on transatlantic flights for

2550-421: The Short Empire only had enough range with enlarged fuel tanks at the expense of a passenger room, several pioneering experiments were done with the aircraft to work around the problem. It was known that aircraft could maintain flight with a greater load than is possible to take off with, so Major Robert H. Mayo, Technical general manager at Imperial Airways , proposed mounting a small, long-range seaplane on top of

2625-466: The UK's national airline service, which continued to use a number of the W.8, W.9 and W.10 series of airliners. Handley Page continued to develop large biplane airliners, including the luxurious Handley Page H.P.42 , for use on Imperial routes to Africa and India. Handley Page developed the Handley Page Slat (or slot), an auxiliary airfoil mounted ahead and above the wing, which formed

2700-774: The United States Government to covertly assist the British Government before the United States entry into the Second World War as mail was taken off trans-Atlantic PAA flights by the Imperial Censorship of British Security Co-ordination to search for secret communications from Axis spies operating in the United States, including the Joe K ring , with information gained being shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation . The range of

2775-775: The United States to establish a base in Bermuda. Ultimately, the agreement would be expanded to include a United States Naval Operating Base , containing a Naval Air Station serving anti-submarine flying boats, on the Great Sound (near to the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda , Royal Naval Air Station Bermuda that had been operated for the Royal Navy with the rest of the Fleet Air Arm at its original location in HM Dockyard Bermuda until 1939 by

2850-867: The Vickers plane took off from Lester's Field, in St John's, Newfoundland . Alcock and Brown flew the modified Vickers Vimy, powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle 360 hp engines. It was not an easy flight, with unexpected fog, and a snow storm almost causing the crewmen to crash into the sea. Their altitude varied between sea level and 12,000 feet (3,700 m) and upon takeoff, they carried 865 imperial gallons (3,900 L) of fuel. They made landfall in Clifden , County Galway at 8:40 a.m. on 15 June 1919, not far from their intended landing place, after less than sixteen hours of flying. The Secretary of State for Air , Winston Churchill , presented Alcock and Brown with

2925-519: The Vimy for the long flight, replacing its bomb racks with extra petrol tanks. Shortly afterwards Brown, who was unemployed, approached Vickers seeking a post and his knowledge of long-distance navigation convinced them to take him on as Alcock's navigator. Vickers's team quickly assembled its plane and at around 1:45 p.m. on 14 June, while the Handley Page team was conducting yet another test,

3000-566: The advent of the hot air balloon . The balloons of the period were inflated with coal gas , a moderate lifting medium compared to hydrogen or helium , but with enough lift to use the winds that would later be known as the Jet Stream . In 1859, John Wise built an enormous aerostat named the Atlantic , intending to cross the Atlantic . The flight lasted less than a day, crash-landing in Henderson, New York . Thaddeus S. C. Lowe prepared

3075-498: The aircraft final assembly to Radlett Aerodrome . Cricklewood Aerodrome was taken over by Cricklewood Studios , the largest film studio in the UK at that time. Manufacture of aircraft parts and sub-assemblies continued until 1964 at Cricklewood when the remainder of the site was sold off and a Wickes home renovation store currently occupies the site. With the Second World War looming, Handley Page designed and produced

Handley Page Harrow - Misplaced Pages Continue

3150-628: The airship "NORGE" ("Norway") piloted by the Italian colonel Umberto Nobile , non-stop from Svalbard , Norway to Teller, Alaska , USA. The flight lasted for 72 hours. The first night-time crossing of the South Atlantic was accomplished on 16–17 April 1927 by the Portuguese aviators Sarmento de Beires , Jorge de Castilho and Manuel Gouveia, flying from the Bijagós Archipelago , Portuguese Guinea , to Fernando de Noronha , Brazil in

3225-688: The crossing. An agreement between the governments of the US, Britain, Canada, and the Irish Free State in 1935 set aside the Irish town of Foynes , the most westerly port in Ireland , as the terminal for all such services to be established. Imperial Airways had bought the Short Empire flying boat, primarily for use along the empire routes to Africa, Asia and Australia, and had established an international airport on Darrell's Island , in

3300-431: The facility as BOAC and PAA continued to do) and Kindley Field , serving land planes, constructed by the United States Army for operation by the United States Army Air Forces, but to be used jointly by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. In January 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Bermuda on his return to Britain, following December 1941 meetings in Washington D.C. , with US President Franklin Roosevelt , in

3375-443: The first British public company to build aircraft. In 1912, Handley Page established an aircraft factory at Cricklewood after moving from Barking . Aircraft were built there, and flown from the company's adjacent airfield known as Cricklewood Aerodrome , which was later used by Handley Page Transport . The factory was later sold off to Oswald Stoll and converted into Britain's largest film studio, Cricklewood Studios . During

3450-407: The first attempt on 18 May, but engine failure brought them down into the ocean where they were rescued. Raynham and Morgan also attempted on 18 May but crashed on takeoff due to the high fuel load. The Handley Page team was in the final stages of testing its aircraft for the flight in June, but the Vickers group was ready earlier. During 14–15 June 1919, the British aviators Alcock and Brown made

3525-415: The first non-stop transatlantic flight. During the War, Alcock resolved to fly the Atlantic, and after the war, he approached the Vickers engineering and aviation firm at Weybridge , which had considered entering its Vickers Vimy IV twin-engined bomber in the competition but had not yet found a pilot. Alcock's enthusiasm impressed Vickers's team, and he was appointed as its pilot. Work began on converting

3600-553: The first runway at Kindley Field became operational in 1943, the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm relocated Roc target tugs that had been operating on floats from RNAS Bermuda to the airfield to operate as land planes, and RAF Transport Command moved its operations there, leaving RAF Ferry Command at Darrell's Island. The time it was taken for an aircraft – such as the Lockheed Hudson – bought in the United States, to be flown to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland , and then partially dis-assembled before being transported by ship to England, where it

3675-409: The first solo crossing of the Atlantic. The first east-west non-stop transatlantic crossing by an aeroplane was made in 1928 by the Bremen , a German Junkers W33 type aircraft, from Baldonnel Airfield in County Dublin , Ireland. On 18 August 1932 Jim Mollison made the first east-to-west solo trans-Atlantic flight; flying from Portmarnock in Ireland to Pennfield, New Brunswick , Canada in

3750-417: The first time in 1935. In the system, the receiver aircraft trailed a steel cable which was then grappled by a line shot from the tanker. The line was then drawn back into the tanker where the receiver's cable was connected to the refueling hose. The receiver could then haul back in its cable bringing the hose to it. Once the hose was connected, the tanker climbed sufficiently above the receiver aircraft to allow

3825-414: The fuel to flow under gravity. Cobham founded Flight Refuelling Ltd in 1934 and by 1938 had demonstrated the FRL's looped-hose system to refuel the Short Empire flying boat Cambria from an Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 . Handley Page Harrows were used in the 1939 trials to aerial refuel the Empire flying boats for regular transatlantic crossings. From 5 August – 1 October 1939, sixteen crossings of

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3900-416: The late 1960s, the British aviation industry was dominated by two companies: Hawker Siddeley and the British Aircraft Corporation . Unable to compete for government orders or build large commercial aircraft, Handley Page produced its final notable Handley Page design, the Jetstream . This was a small turboprop -powered commuter aircraft, with a pressurised cabin and a passenger capacity of 12 to 18. It

3975-416: The long distances involved, with few stopping points. Initial transatlantic services, therefore, focused on the South Atlantic, where some French, German, and Italian airlines offered seaplane service for mail between South America and West Africa in the 1930s. Between February 1934 and August 1939 Lufthansa operated a regular airmail service between Natal, Brazil , and Bathurst, Gambia , continuing via

4050-406: The new sequence, starting with the Type A as the HP.1. Thus the O/400 became the HP.16 and the W.8 the HP.18. Unbuilt projects were skipped from this sequence. When the assets of Miles Aircraft were taken over, the latter's Reading design office used HPR for Handley Page Reading, followed by a number as with the HPR.1 Marathon. Transatlantic flight Early aircraft engines did not have

4125-408: The range to reach Berlin. The V/1500 had only just entered operational service as the war ended in 1918. The Handley Page factory at Radlett Aerodrome employed women as part of the war effort, and was visited by royalty. In early 1919, a Handley Page V/1500 aircraft, dubbed Atlantic , was shipped to Newfoundland to attempt the world's first non-stop Transatlantic flight ; only to be beaten by

4200-460: The reliability nor the power to lift the required fuel to make a transatlantic flight. There were difficulties navigating over the featureless expanse of water for thousands of miles, and the weather , especially in the North Atlantic , is unpredictable. Since the middle of the 20th century, however, transatlantic flight has become routine, for commercial , military , diplomatic , and other purposes. The idea of transatlantic flight came about with

4275-434: The remainder. The runway surface was removed and replaced with grass, but a shadow remains when viewed from the air. The aerodrome was used in the 1962 film, The Iron Maiden . Handley Page originally used a letter sequence to designate types (i.e. A , B , C etc.). Beginning with the model E, the letter was used in combination with a slash and a number that referred to the installed horsepower, at least initially. However

4350-424: The summer of 1931, a South Atlantic route was introduced, from Frankfurt and Friedrichshafen to Recife and Rio de Janeiro . Between 1931 and 1937 the Graf Zeppelin crossed the South Atlantic 136 times. The British rigid airship R100 made a successful return trip from Cardington to Montreal in July–August 1930, in what was intended to be a proving flight for regularly scheduled passenger services. Following

4425-419: The time, but many design features of the V/1500 were later incorporated into an O/400 airframe to produce their first dedicated passenger design, the W.8 that led to a series of similar airliners, fitted with two or three engines, which, aside from being used by Handley Page Transport, were also exported to Belgium. In 1924 Handley Page Transport merged with two other airlines to create Imperial Airways , as

4500-490: The title Handley Page Harrow . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Handley_Page_Harrow&oldid=699501832 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Handley Page Handley Page Limited

4575-413: The weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Churchill flew into Darrell's Island on the BOAC Boeing 314 Berwick . Although it had been planned to continue the journey aboard the battleship HMS Duke of York , he made an impulsive decision to complete it by a direct flight from Bermuda to Plymouth, England aboard Berwick, marking the first trans-Atlantic air crossing by a national leader. When

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4650-484: Was $ 400 one way; the ten westward trips that season took 53 to 78 hours and eastward took 43 to 61 hours. The last eastward trip of the year left Lakehurst on 10 October; the first North Atlantic trip of 1937 ended in the Hindenburg disaster . It would take two more decades after Alcock and Brown's first nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1919 before commercial airplane flights became practical. The North Atlantic presented severe challenges for aviators due to weather and

4725-627: Was a British aerospace manufacturer . Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation and ceased to exist in 1970. The company, based at Radlett Aerodrome in Hertfordshire , was noted for its pioneering role in aviation history and for producing heavy bombers and large airliners . Frederick Handley Page first experimented with and built several biplanes and monoplanes at premises in Woolwich , Fambridge and Barking Creek . His company, founded on 17 June 1909, became

4800-456: Was begun by the Ministry of Aircraft Production . Its minister, Lord Beaverbrook a Canadian by origin, reached an agreement with Sir Edward Beatty , a friend and chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to provide ground facilities and support. Ministry of Aircraft Production would provide civilian crews and management and former RAF officer Don Bennett , a specialist in long-distance flying and later Air Vice Marshal and commander of

4875-459: Was designed primarily for the United States " feederliner " market. Although successful, Jetstream was too late to save Handley Page, and the company went into voluntary liquidation in March 1970 and was wound up after 61 years trading under the same name. The Jetstream lived on, the design being purchased and produced by Scottish Aviation at Prestwick , continuing after the company was bought by British Aerospace in 1977. Radlett Aerodrome

4950-443: Was intended to form the backbone of Imperial Airways ' Empire services. It could fly 6,000 miles (9,700 km) unburdened, or 150 passengers for a "short hop". On 21 July 1939, the first aircraft, (G-AFCI "Golden Hind"), was first flown at Rochester by Shorts' chief test pilot , John Lankester Parker . Although two aircraft were handed over to Imperial Airways for crew training, all three were impressed (along with their crews) into

5025-416: Was made by the Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in 1922. Coutinho and Cabral flew from Lisbon , Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro , Brazil in stages, using three different Fairey III biplanes, and they covered a distance of 8,383 kilometres (5,209 mi) between 30 March and 17 June. The first transatlantic flight between Spain and South America was completed in January 1926 with

5100-401: Was made just a couple of weeks after the transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown , on 2 July 1919. Major George Herbert Scott of the Royal Air Force flew the airship R34 with his crew and passengers from RAF East Fortune , Scotland to Mineola, New York (on Long Island ), covering a distance of about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) in about four and a half days. The flight was intended as

5175-439: Was named Handley Page (Reading) Ltd , a company constituted to buy and operate the assets formed out of the inactive Handley Page Transport Ltd. The most significant of the inherited designs became the Herald airliner. Designs from the Reading site used the initials HPR ("Handley Page (Reading)"). Unlike other large British aircraft manufacturers, Handley Page resisted the government's pressure to merge into larger entities. By

5250-434: Was on 9 July, and this continued only until the onset of the Second World War , less than two months later. The Clipper fleet was then pressed into military service and the flying boats were used for ferrying personnel and equipment to the European and Pacific fronts . It was from the emergency exigencies of World War II that crossing the Atlantic by land-based aircraft became a practical and commonplace possibility. With

5325-405: Was opened in 1929 as a grass aerodrome for Handley Page Civil Aircraft. Its runway was extended in 1939 to enable production of Halifax bombers. By the time of its closure the airfield had two runways: Most of the towers, hangars and runways were demolished in the 1970s after the Company was terminated. The M25 Motorway now runs on the south side of the site, with Lafarge Aggregates now owning

5400-501: Was re-assembled and subject to repairs of any damage sustained during shipment, could mean an aircraft could not enter service for several weeks. Further, German U-boats operating in the North Atlantic Ocean made it particularly hazardous for merchant ships between Newfoundland and Britain. Larger aircraft could be flown directly to the UK and an organization was set up to manage this using civilian pilots. The program

5475-536: Was suspended with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 but reopened after Armistice was declared in 1918. The war saw tremendous advances in aerial capabilities, and a real possibility of transatlantic flight by aircraft emerged. Between 8 and 31 May 1919, the Curtiss seaplane NC-4 made a crossing of the Atlantic flying from the U.S. to Newfoundland , then to the Azores , and on to mainland Portugal and finally

5550-552: Was the HP.80 Victor , a four-engined, crescent-winged design. This aircraft remained in service (as a tanker aircraft ) well beyond the demise of the company which created it. In 1947 Handley Page bought some of the assets of the bankrupt Miles Aircraft company. These assets include existing designs, tools and jigs, most notably for the Miles M.52 supersonic research aircraft, and the Miles site at Woodley , near Reading. The operation

5625-559: Was to become the first commercial non-stop east-to-west transatlantic flight by a heavier-than-air machine. This initial journey took 20 hrs, 21 min at an average ground speed of 144 miles per hour (232 km/h). Another technology developed for transatlantic commercial flight was aerial refuelling . Sir Alan Cobham developed the Grappled-line looped-hose system to stimulate the possibility for long-range transoceanic commercial aircraft flights, and publicly demonstrated it for

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