Handley Page Type O

[Gary cw]

Type O

Good evening
just to start a few things off with the Handley page

1 - first aircraft to have a ' specification' as to what was wanted. I think you will agree it's something that ' took off '
2- the airframe was ' developed' that is something that hadn't happened before
3 - in order to get an engine George Sutter had the idea to go to a car maker for the engines as all the aircraft engine manufacturers were busy. The car manufacturer said no. They only made water cooled engines not air-cooled engines for aircraft. But after pressuring the car maker they relented and said ok we will make you an aircraft engine but it will have to be water cooled. I assume you have heard of Rolls Royce... This is how rolls Royce aero started.
4 - rolls Royce decided to put together 2 of their ghost engines.i assume you have heard of a V12 ? This is the first production V12. Do you think the concept worked ? ( There was a prototype V12 marine diesel and Packard may have produced an engine or 2 )
5 - next the came up with a thing called an overhead cam. ( Yes there was a mercedes racing car left behind at a racetrack.) But again this is the first production use of an overhead cam. You probably have one in your car even now ?
6 - however Rolls were particularly pleased with their epicyclic control gear. Which they patented. You have probably never heard of it. The more common name is planetary gearing. In virtually every gearbox and engine in the world.
7 - because they ' developed' the airframe they drew and made every single piece of the aircraft and tested every piece. They started to realise wood with straight grain was best for aircraft production. Any ' wooden' aircraft use ' aviation grade ' timber. This was the start of that specification.
8 - just to give you a feel for the sheer size of this plane it's bigger than a Boeing 737/500. The Boeing has a wingspan of about 96 feet the Handley page is 100feet.

That will do for a start I can go on for pages let me know what you think so far

Gary

I am very sorry if I have upset anyone. But my understanding is that the epicyclic gearing was in fact patented by Rolls Royce. If anyone believes it was ' invented' before please let me know. I can change my details. Going back to the patent it would not have been approved as a patent if it already existed.

As to Development Sopwith and DH had been mentioned. Sopwith I believe kicked out 50 designs in WW1 which is 1 every 4 weeks. I would suggest development in such a short timescale simply isn't possible. It took over a year for the Handley page to take it's first flight and some time later to get it dead right.

​​​​​​As to the overhead cam I again believe it was mercedes who first put an overhead cam in their racing car which was left at brooklands at the start of the war. I would suggest that as rolls Royce didn't race cars they were probably simply unaware of it. If it was to be if interest I believe Aston Martin Vauxhall and a few other car manufacturers would have had more interest in it than Rolls Royce.

Once again I apologise if you find me condescending it most certainly isn't my intention. Everything I have said I have documentary evidence off. That doesn't mean it is correct which is why I am asking questions on this forum.

Lastly as a new member I don't yet have the ability to contact you all individually as I would like to

​​​​​​Many thanks

Gary