AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 32 / 94

Plate 32 of 94 · Second World War · Medium bomber and torpedo bomber

Handley Page Hampden

TB.I, painted as P1344, a Handley Page Hampden built by Handley Page at Cricklewood in 1939 with two Bristol Pegasus radials, converted to a TB.I torpedo bomber and lost near Murmansk in September 1942 while flying out with No. 144 Squadron to protect the Arctic convoys, recovered in 1991, restored at Cosford and now displayed at RAF Museum London, shown complete as it was in service: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces over black sides and undersides, a yellow-ringed roundel where the narrow fuselage pod meets the tail boom, ‘PL-K’ codes in dull red, ‘P1344’ in red on the boom, fin flashes on the twin fins, the glazed nose, the pilot’s hood and the dorsal and ventral gun positions with their twin Vickers K guns, and black three-blade propellers with yellow tips; the museum’s airframe has no outer wings or engines, so those are built from drawings and wartime photographs.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as P1344, a Handley Page Hampden built by Handley Page at Cricklewood in 1939 with two Bristol Pegasus radials, converted to a TB.I torpedo bomber and lost near Murmansk in September 1942 while flying out with No. 144 Squadron to protect the Arctic convoys, recovered in 1991, restored at Cosford and now displayed at RAF Museum London, shown complete as it was in service: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces over black sides and undersides, a yellow-ringed roundel where the narrow fuselage pod meets the tail boom, ‘PL-K’ codes in dull red, ‘P1344’ in red on the boom, fin flashes on the twin fins, the glazed nose, the pilot’s hood and the dorsal and ventral gun positions with their twin Vickers K guns, and black three-blade propellers with yellow tips; the museum’s airframe has no outer wings or engines, so those are built from drawings and wartime photographs. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.4 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (+ Hereford); engine, crew and dimensions are for the TB.I modelled here.

History

The Hampden

The Hampden was Handley Page’s answer to Air Ministry specification B.9/32, the same requirement that produced the Wellington. Gustav Lachmann’s design packed a crew of four into a deep fuselage pod only three feet wide, with the pilot sitting high above a glazed nose and gunners above and below the trailing edge, and carried the twin fins and tailplane on a slender boom behind it. Leading-edge slats and big flaps gave it a low landing speed, and it was fast and agile for a bomber of its day. The prototype, K4240, first flew from Radlett on 21 June 1936, and the first production aircraft reached No. 49 Squadron at Scampton in September 1938.

With the Wellington and the Whitley, the Hampden made up Bomber Command’s medium force in the first years of the war. Daylight raids in 1939 showed its hand-held Vickers K guns could not hold off fighters, and it turned to night bombing and to laying mines in German coastal waters. Two Hampden crewmen won the Victoria Cross in 1940: Flight Lieutenant Roderick Learoyd of No. 49 Squadron for a low-level attack on the Dortmund–Ems Canal, and Sergeant John Hannah of No. 83 Squadron for fighting a fire in his aircraft over Antwerp. Guy Gibson flew his first tour on Hampdens with No. 83 Squadron.

The Hampden left Bomber Command in September 1942. Coastal Command took many of the survivors as TB.I torpedo bombers, and in September 1942 Nos. 144 and 455 Squadrons flew out to northern Russia to guard convoy PQ 18, leaving their aircraft with the Soviet Navy when they came home. Handley Page, English Electric and Canadian Associated Aircraft built 1,430 Hampdens, and Short Brothers built the Hereford, a version with Napier Dagger engines that was used mainly for training. The type was out of front-line service by the end of 1943.

This airframe

Hampden TB.I P1344

P1344The airframe modelled

P1344 was built by Handley Page at Cricklewood and delivered in December 1939. After serving with No. 14 Operational Training Unit it was converted to a TB.I torpedo bomber and joined No. 144 Squadron at Leuchars, coded PL-K. On the night of 4–5 September 1942, on the long ferry flight from Sumburgh to the Kola Peninsula, it came down near Murmansk. The wreck was recovered in 1991 and acquired by the RAF Museum, which restored it at Cosford and put it on display at RAF Museum London. It is shown there as a fuselage, with its tail boom, fins and tailplane but without outer wings or engines. The model completes it as it was in service in 1942: Dark Earth and Dark Green upper surfaces over black sides and undersides, a yellow-ringed roundel where the pod meets the boom, “PL” and “K” in dull red, “P1344” in red on the boom, fin flashes on both fins, and black three-blade propellers with yellow tips. The wings, nacelles and undercarriage are built from drawings and wartime photographs, and the upper wings carry the red and blue roundels Hampdens wore in 1942.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum London

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Hampden in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 94 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.