Handley Page W.8
The Handley Page W.8 was a British biplane airliner first flown in 1919: Handley Page's first purpose-built civil airliner, developed from the wartime O/400 bomber. This record covers the Type W family as the sources frame it — the twin-engined W.8 and W.8b, the three-engined W.8e and W.8f Hamilton, the W.9 Hampstead and the W.10. Twenty-five were built for civil service, twelve by Handley Page and thirteen by SABCA in Belgium. They served Handley Page Transport, Imperial Airways and Sabena, on the London–Paris route and other European services, from 1921 until the HP.42 replaced them in 1931. The two W.10s that outlasted airline service became flight-refuelling tankers for Sir Alan Cobham's company; none is known preserved in a British museum.
Why It Mattered
The W.8 was Handley Page's first purpose-built civil airliner, developed from the company's wartime O/400 bomber by way of the O/7, O/10 and O/11 transports. The prototype flew on 2 December 1919 and was taken to Paris later that month for exhibition at the Paris Air Show. Wikipedia credits the design with a small first: it was the world's first airliner designed with an on-board lavatory. Unlike the converted bombers it grew from, it was designed around its passengers: an enclosed cabin, in most versions for twelve, and scheduled services between London, Paris and Brussels. Twenty-five aircraft were built in Britain and Belgium, and the family — W.8, W.9 and W.10 — served routes throughout Europe.
Design Notes
The W family were equal-span, three-bay biplanes of wooden structure with fabric covering, a single fin and rudder, and a four-wheeled undercarriage. The two crew sat in an open cockpit in the nose, while the passengers rode in an enclosed cabin between the wings. The prototype carried fifteen passengers and was powered by two 450-horsepower Napier Lion engines. An Air Ministry ruling then cut capacity to twelve and moved the fuel tanks from the engine nacelles to above the top wing; the resulting W.8b used smaller Rolls-Royce Eagle engines of 360 horsepower. Later variants turned to three engines to reduce the risk of an engine failure: the W.8e put an Eagle in the nose and two Siddeley Pumas between the wings, and the one-off W.8f Hamilton added cabin heating. The W.9 was a three-engined transport designed with Middle East operations in mind, and the final model, the W.10, returned to twin Napier Lions and carried sixteen passengers.
Operational History
The prototype, G-EAPJ, first flew on 2 December 1919, was exhibited in Paris later that month, and went on to set a British record by carrying a payload of 1,673 kg to 14,000 feet. It was destroyed in July 1923, when engine trouble forced it down at Poix in France and it ran into a sunken road; all nine people aboard survived. The type was awarded a public transport certificate of airworthiness, its load restricted to twelve passengers, and entered service on the London–Paris route on 21 October 1921. In 1921 the Air Ministry ordered three W.8bs for Handley Page Transport — later Imperial Airways — to serve Paris and Brussels; another was delivered to Sabena in 1924, and SABCA built three more under licence in Belgium. Production then centred on the three-engined W.8e: the first was sold to Sabena, which had ten more built by SABCA. The single W.9 Hampstead set an 86-minute record on the London–Paris route and was re-engined with three Bristol Jupiters in 1926; it ended its career in New Guinea, crashing into a mountainside there in May 1930. Four W.10s for Imperial Airways completed the family's production, the first flying on 10 February 1926. Airline service brought losses as well as records: in June 1929 the W.10 City of Ottawa ditched in the English Channel on a Croydon–Paris flight, with the loss of seven lives. When Imperial Airways introduced the HP.42 in 1931, the W series aircraft were retired from airline service.
Afterlife
Retirement from Imperial Airways did not ground the survivors: private operators took them up for display flying and joy riding. Wikipedia calls the most important development the conversion of the two surviving W.10s into tanker aircraft for Sir Alan Cobham. One of them was used for a mid-air refuelling of an Airspeed Courier during Cobham's attempted non-stop flight to India. In September 1934 one of the W.10s crashed at Aston Clinton, killing all four crew; the Inspector of Accidents concluded that the probable cause was a fractured main bolt in the tailplane bracing, its failure probably a matter of metal fatigue. No example is preserved in a British museum: the British Aircraft Directory lists none known. The design also fed back into military work, as the W.8d became the Handley Page Hyderabad heavy bomber.