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Sir Frederick Handley Page: The Man and his Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

G. V. Lachmann
G. V. Lachmann*
Affiliation:
Handley Page Ltd.
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Extract

I feel greatly honoured having been invited to deliver the Second Handley Page Memorial Lecture and, indeed, grateful for the opportunity to pay tribute to a great Englishman and aeronautical pioneer, who for 40 years was my personal friend and, for over 30, my Chief. As no other man, he has decisively influenced the course of my life.

Type
Second Handley Page Memorial Lecture
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 68 , Issue 643 , July 1964 , pp. 433 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1964

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References

page no 434 note * Pioneer of French aviation who died after a crash in 1909

page no 434 note † lgo Etrich in Austria had also been inspired by the Zanonia seed in designing the Etrich Taube.

page no 435 note * They set off from Hendon at 7.30 one morning but, due to haze from the southern counties and channel fog, they did not reach Calais until 4.30 in the afternoon, having waited some time at Eastbourne. No time had been saved, nevertheless the princess was delighted with her flight.

page no 436 note * She perished in an attempt during the late 'twenties to make the first westward crossing of the Atlantic with two companions in a singleengined Fokker monoplane, the St. Raphael.

page no 436 note * Figures were 0-606 for the HP 0/100 and 0-7 for the Ilja Murometz. Igor Sikorski by February 1914 had already flown the Ilja Murometz, designed by him,for 1¼ hours from St.Petersburg to Pulkovo and back. This aircraft, fitted with 4 Argus engines, had an empty weight of Sitons and an all-up weight of 3½ tons.

page no 437 note * The Langley, as the American-assembled machine was christened, played an impressive part in General Mitchell's crusading demonstration of the superiority of air over naval power by sinking the heavily-armoured Ostfriesland with a 1000 lb bomb.

page no 437 note † Francis Arcier, an extremely capable designer and draughtsman, shared with Volkert the responsibility for design from 1913-1919 in an extremely happy and productive partnership. After leaving Handley Page, he continued a brilliant career in the U.S.A.

page no 438 note * Afterwards the aircraft were flown for the same number of hours as the projected Berlin trip. Two would have got there, one would have got back. The epicyclic gears were the weak points of failure. (From a letter by Lord Balfour of Inchrye to Sir Frederick.)

page no 438 note † Giving statistics, the Air Ministry resume of commercial information showed that in 1932 Imperial Airways, operating on the London- Paris route, obtained a 98 per cent increase in passengers as compared with the 15 per cent increase of the next best company operating over the same route. Commenting on these figures, the Air Ministry resume stated: “The improved position of Imperial Airways, particularly so far as passenger traffic is concerned, must be largely attributed to the placing into service of the new Handley Page Heracles-type aeroplanes.”

page no 439 note * Even at this embryonic stage of civil aviation the regularity of the Handley Page service between London and Paris and London and Amsterdam was 76 per cent and 84 per cent respectively. During this period Handley Page Transport carried the majority of passengers on these routes. It was the sole operator to and from Brussels and its operational efficiency on this sector was as high as 94 per cent.

page no 439 note * *Of the fourteen aircraft operated by the new combine shortly after its inception nine were Handley Pages. Out of the total of 178 air liner seats they provided 124.

page no 439 note † The Times Literary Supplement, 25th October 1963

page no 439 note ‡ JWing sections then in use on biplanes had what is now called a leadingedge separation. The benefit derived from fitting a leading edge slot was, therefore, more marked than on wing sections with rear separation.

page no 442 note * Very similar to H.P.'s multi-slotted wing in Fig. 14.

page no 442 note * On the Albatros L.72, the first fully-slotted commercial aircraft which went into service in Germany as newspaper carriers–I joined the Albatros Company as chief designer in 1925–it was observed that the slots had an opening tendency at small angles of incidence. This caused a small gap, due to unavoidable backlash, which increased profile drag. Additional restraining mechanism had to be incorporated.

page no 443 note † Then in charge of the Handley Page wind tunnel

page no 443 note ‡ Not the Harrow of the last war

page no 444 note * Spoilers arranged behind the slot came into action only when the slots were open and the aileron was raised. A very powerful rolling moment resulted.

page no 444 note ‡ They instanced such a simple and obvious device as a fuel pipe standing proud inside the petrol tank to avoid sludge and other foreign matter. On such counts, the American firm tried unsuccessfully to get the Gugnunc disqualified.

page no 445 note * British Patent No. 450276 (1935) by Dare, Lachmann and Volkert

page no 446 note * History of Boundary Layer Control in Germany by A. Betz, Boundary Layer and Flow Control, Vol. 1, Pergamon Press 1961

page no 447 note * Monoplane or Biplane by W. S. Farren, Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Vol. XXXIII, July 1929

page no 447 note † The Streamline Aeroplane by B. Melvill Jones, Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Vol. XXXIII, May 1929

page no 447 note * The state of the art at this time was instructively presented in 1934 by H. J. Pollard, in an R.Ae.S. paper “Some Developments in Aircraft Construction” (J.R.Ae.S., Vol. 38, July 1934) and in one in 1937 by I. J. Gerard on “Monocoque Construction.” The author presented a paper on “Aerodynamic and Structural Features of Tapered Wings” in 1937.

page no 448 note * Production started in the spring of 1936 and the hundredth aircraft left the factory in December 1937, three months ahead of contract date.

page no 448 note * 6176 Halifax aircraft were produced during the last war.

page no 450 note * Based on information kindly provided by “The Financial Times.”

page no 451 note * Total flying time was 126 hr 46 min made up of 62 sectors. Prince Philip flew 49 of these sectors and out of the 112 hours he spent on board he was at the controls for 99 hours.

page no 451 note † H.P. underwent two operations for cataract.

page no 451 note ‡ Total flying hours of Heralds to date: over 40 000. Over 400 million passenger-seat miles flown. More than 50 000 landings, with some aircraft recording more than 3000 per year.

page no 451 note * Now Director of the Society of British Aerospace Companies

page no 451 note ‡ J. Laurence Pritchard has 'given a more comprehensive picture of H.P.'s merits and his half-a-century association with the R.Ae.S., in the Journal of the R.Ae.S., Vol. 66, December 1962.