AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 64 / 295

Plate 64 of 295 · Between the wars · Four-engined biplane airliner

Handley Page H.P.42

H.P.42W, G-AAXC ‘Heracles’, painted as G-AAXC ‘Heracles’, a Handley Page H.P.42W (the H.P.45) of Imperial Airways in about 1931–34, flown on the European routes from Croydon: a large four-engined biplane airliner with unequal-span wings, the lower wing set at the bottom of the fuselage and the upper wing above it, two Bristol Jupiter XFBM radials on the upper wing either side of the fuselage and two on the lower wing, a corrugated metal forward fuselage with an enclosed flight deck, forward and aft passenger cabins with large square windows, a fabric-covered rear fuselage and a biplane tail with three fins and rudders, shown tail down on its main wheels and tail wheel: overall aluminium dope and bare metal, ‘HERACLES’ and ‘IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ on the nose, ‘IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ under the aft cabin windows, the black registration ‘G-AAXC’ on the rear fuselage, across the upper wing and under the lower wings, and varnished wooden propellers, as photographed in the early 1930s (none of the eight H.P.42s survives; the shape was taken from a published three-view, with the forward cabin changed to the H.P.42W’s five-window layout from photographs of G-AAXC and its sister G-AAXF; the starboard aft-cabin lettering is assumed to mirror the port side, and the small stencil by the tail is unreadable in photographs).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-AAXC ‘Heracles’, a Handley Page H.P.42W (the H.P.45) of Imperial Airways in about 1931–34, flown on the European routes from Croydon: a large four-engined biplane airliner with unequal-span wings, the lower wing set at the bottom of the fuselage and the upper wing above it, two Bristol Jupiter XFBM radials on the upper wing either side of the fuselage and two on the lower wing, a corrugated metal forward fuselage with an enclosed flight deck, forward and aft passenger cabins with large square windows, a fabric-covered rear fuselage and a biplane tail with three fins and rudders, shown tail down on its main wheels and tail wheel: overall aluminium dope and bare metal, ‘HERACLES’ and ‘IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ on the nose, ‘IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ under the aft cabin windows, the black registration ‘G-AAXC’ on the rear fuselage, across the upper wing and under the lower wings, and varnished wooden propellers, as photographed in the early 1930s (none of the eight H.P.42s survives; the shape was taken from a published three-view, with the forward cabin changed to the H.P.42W’s five-window layout from photographs of G-AAXC and its sister G-AAXF; the starboard aft-cabin lettering is assumed to mirror the port side, and the small stencil by the tail is unreadable in photographs). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (2.0 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (HP.42E & HP.45 (HP.42W)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the H.P.42W, G-AAXC ‘Heracles’ modelled here.

History

The H.P.42

In 1929 Imperial Airways asked for a large, safe and comfortable airliner for its European services and for the long Empire routes to India and Africa. Handley Page’s designers, George Volkert and Harold Boultbee, answered with a big unequal-span biplane: the lower wing ran along the bottom of the fuselage, two Bristol Jupiters sat on the upper wing and two on the lower, and a biplane tail carried three fins and rudders. The fuselage was metal, corrugated along its forward half, with an enclosed flight deck in the nose and two passenger cabins either side of the wings. The prototype, G-AAGX ‘Hannibal’, first flew on 14 November 1930.

Eight were built, all given names beginning with H. The four H.P.42Es (Hannibal, Horsa, Hanno and Hadrian) had a mail and baggage hold in place of part of the forward cabin and flew the Eastern routes beyond Cairo. The four H.P.42Ws, which Handley Page called the H.P.45 (Heracles, Horatius, Hengist and Helena), had supercharged Jupiters and seats for 38 and flew from Croydon to Paris and other European cities. The first paying passengers flew to Paris on 11 June 1931. At about 100 mph they were slow even then, but their cabins, with meals served by stewards, were quiet and roomy, and they set the standard for comfortable air travel in the 1930s.

The type flew for almost a decade without a passenger fatality. Hengist burned in a hangar fire at Karachi in 1937; the others were lost in the first year of the Second World War, when the survivors were pressed into service with the RAF. Hannibal disappeared over the Gulf of Oman in March 1940, Heracles and Hanno were wrecked in a gale at Whitchurch, Bristol, that same month, and the last were gone by the end of 1940. None of the eight survives.

This airframe

H.P.42W G-AAXC ‘Heracles’

G-AAXCThe airframe modelled

G-AAXC ‘Heracles’ was the first of the four H.P.42Ws, the European version, and first flew on 8 August 1931. It flew Imperial Airways’ services from Croydon for most of the decade, and was wrecked in a gale at Whitchurch, Bristol, on 19 March 1940. No H.P.42 survives, so the model shows the one that photographs record best: sharp side views of Heracles in the ETH-Bibliothek Zürich archive, a postcard from Schiphol and photographs of its sister G-AAXF. The model shows it as it looked in about 1931 to 1934: aluminium dope and bare metal overall, ‘HERACLES’ and ‘IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ on the nose, ‘IMPERIAL AIRWAYS’ under the rear cabin windows and the registration in black on the rear fuselage and the wings. Its shape was taken from a published three-view of the H.P.42E, with the forward cabin changed to the H.P.42W’s five-window layout from the photographs. The lettering on the starboard side of the rear cabin is assumed to mirror the port side, and the small stencil by the tail is unreadable in the photographs.

Where to see one

Not on charge

None of the eight survives: the last were lost or scrapped during the Second World War, so no museum holds one.

All 295 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.