Handley Page Hanley

Torpedo Biplane Bomber Prototype [ 1922 ]

Just three Hanley torpedo bombers were completed by Handley Page of the United Kingdom in the early part of the 1920s.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 01/30/2019 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]

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Before the end of 1920, the British Air Ministry drew up a requirement for a new carrier-borne combat aircraft capable of aerial torpedo delivery for the Royal Air Force's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). To this point, the Sopwith "Cuckoo" was fulfilling the role but this design had its roots in the fighting of World War 1 (1918) and was on its last legs performance-wise and technologically (some 232 were built in all). The new torpedo bomber would have to be inherently carrier-capable - as the aircraft carrier had proven itself the future of naval warfare - carry a single 18" torpedo under its belly, and offer the performance and low-speed handling required of such an aircraft. Bomber-maker Handley Page of Britain began work on what would become its "Hanley" prototype and its chief competition would be had from rival Blackburn who soon moved to develop their "Dart" torpedo-delivery platform at the same time.

The Handley Page offerings was known internally as the "Type T" and named "Hanley" while retroactively being assigned the designator of "HP.19". The contract called for a total of three flyable single-seat, single-engine prototypes to be built and powered by the Napier "Lion" engine.

The engine was positioned at the nose with the cockpit directly aft. The pilot sat in an open-air cockpit aft and under the upper wing member. The wing arrangement utilized a traditional over-under, unstaggered biplane with full-length slots (along both wing leading edges to slow the aircraft down), parallel support struts, and triple bays. The wings were also designed to fold for carrier storage as needed. The fuselage then tapered towards the tail to which a single-finned rudder was affixed with a pair of horizontal planes. The undercarriage consisted of a strutted twin-wheeled main landing gear under center mass and a simple tail skid under the tail for ground-running. Overall construction involved mainly wood.

As completed, the aircraft had an overall length of 33.3 feet, a wingspan of 46 feet, and a height of 14.1 feet. Empty weight reached 3,640lb to a Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) near 6,445lb.

Power was supplied by a Napier Lion IIB series 12-cylinder, water-cooled engine developing 450 horsepower turning a two-bladed propeller at the nose. Performance included a maximum speed of 116 miles-per-hour and a service ceiling up to 15,000 feet.

A first-flight by the "Hanley I" prototype was had on January 3rd, 1922 but subsequent testing soon found issues with the design: vision out-of-the-cockpit was limited (a common failing of World War 1-era biplanes), performance was generally lacking, and low-speed handling was deemed poor. The initial prototype was subsequently damaged during a landing action but salvaged with all-new wing components, including updated control surfaces, to become the "Hanley II".

The Hanley II took to the skies for the first time in December of 1922 and the revised design improved performance some but failed to solve the low-speed handling issue - a quality critical to naval / carrier-based aircraft at any level. This then led to a third prototype being developed as the "Hanley III" and this offering brought with it improved aerodynamics and modified control slots at the wings, the latter which rectified handling issues but, by this time, the FAA had already moved on a competing type, the Blackburn "Dart" torpedo bomber (detailed elsewhere on this site). 118 of these were built and the type flew from 1922 until 1933 with the FAA.

The two-seat Handley Page "Hendon" became a related development of the single-seat Hanley but this ultimately abandoned aircraft program resulted in just six prototypes completed with a first-flight conducted during 1924.©MilitaryFactory.com

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Specifications

Service Year

1922

Origin

United Kingdom

Status

CANCELLED
Development Ended.

Crew

1

Production

3
UNITS

Handley Page - UK

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

United Kingdom

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ Ground Attack (Bombing, Strafing)
Ability to conduct aerial bombing of ground targets by way of (but not limited to) guns, bombs, missiles, rockets, and the like.

✓ Maritime / Navy
Land-based or shipborne capability for operating over-water in various maritime-related roles while supported by allied naval surface elements.

✓ X-Plane (Developmental, Prototype, Technology Demonstrator)
Aircraft developed for the role of prototyping, technology demonstration, or research / data collection.

Length

33.4 ft
(10.17 m)

Width/Span

45.9 ft
(14.00 m)

Height

14.2 ft
(4.32 m)

Empty Wgt

3,649 lb
(1,655 kg)

MTOW

6,614 lb
(3,000 kg)

Wgt Diff

+2,965 lb
(+1,345 kg)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base Handley Page Hanley production variant)

Installed: 1 x Napier Lion IIB 12-cylinder water-cooled engine developing 450 horsepower and driving a two-bladed propeller unit at the nose.

Max Speed

116 mph
(187 kph | 101 kts)

Ceiling

15,223 ft
(4,640 m | 3 mi)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base Handley Page Hanley production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

1 x 18" aerial torpedo carried under fuselage centerline.

Supported Types

Graphical image of an aircraft aerial torpedo

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

Hardpoint Mountings: 1

Hanley - Base Series Name; three examples completed.

General Assessment

Firepower

Performance

Survivability

Versatility

Impact

Values are derrived from a variety of categories related to the design, overall function, and historical influence of this aircraft in aviation history.

Overall Rating

The overall rating takes into account over 60 individual factors related to this aircraft entry.

36

Rating is out of a possible 100 points.

Relative Maximum Speed

Hi: 120mph

Lo: 60mph

This entry's maximum listed speed (116mph).

Graph average of 90 miles-per-hour.

Max Altitude Visualization

Aviation Era Span

Showcasing era cross-over of this aircraft design.

Unit Production (3)

3

36183

44000

Compared against Ilyushin IL-2 (military) and Cessna 172 (civilian).

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