Aeroplane Monthly 1986-05
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A.Lumsden, T.Heffernan - Probe Probare (24)
HIGH LIFT: HIGH SPEED. The new Handley-Page medium bomber with two Pegasus engines, controllable-pitch airscrews, slots and flaps, and retractable undercarriage. It is painted a sombre mud colour, which may signify a revision of official colour schemes.
The H.P.52 prototype, with modified Heyford ventral turret, takes off from Radlett in July 1936.
The same aircraft in its RAF Display configuration, with the nose glazing sheeted over with aluminium to hide its interior from public gaze.
K4240 photographed at Martlesham Heath.
The production prototype Hampden, L4032, was first flown in May 1938. After evaluation by the A&AEE and RAE is was given the Maintenance serial number 2711M in 1941.
Another view of K4240 during one of its visits to Martlesham Heath.
Hampden I P1333 being bombed up in 1940. The maximum bomb load was 4,000 lb. P1333 served with 49 Squadron and went miss­ing on August 17, 1940. It was one of a batch of 200 Hampden Is delivered to the RAF between June 1939 and February 1940.
In mid-1938 a pair of 1,000 h.p. 16-cylinder Napier Dagger in-line engines was installed in Hampden L7271. In this form the aircraft was initially known as the Dagger-Hampden but this was later changed to Hereford Mk I.
Another view of the first production Hereford, L6002.
The first production Hereford, L6002, was first flown from Belfast in late 1939. The type never saw operational service and was mainly used as a bomb-crew trainer. One hundred Herefords were built during 1938-40 by Short and Harland.