Despite its shortcomings the Hermes was an interesting aircraft. It was the first truly modern post war British airliner and when introduced on BOACs monopoly West African routes in 1950 replacing the noisy, low flying, unpressurised, barely soundproofed York it brought standards of comfort better than the Constellation and certainly quieter than the much longer lived Argonaut.Initially fitted out as an all First Class 40 seater (there was no Tourist Class in 1950)and later also as an all tourist 56 seater its cabin capacity was identical to the Argonaut as were broadly its sector times and schedules. It's range was 3,080 miles against the Argonauts 3,340 but that made made little practical difference on the African routes due to the stage lengths involved. The reliability of the Hercules was worse than the Merlin, but thanks to the wartime experience , mainly with the RAF , of BOACs ground engineers both were kept going as well s any piston engines on demanding long haul routes. The money saving use of the Halifax bomber wing gave problems with wing spar life as Handley Page had not envisaged this as usually being the limiting factor in longevity.
BOAC was never enthusiastic about the aircraft, partly because the arrival in 1948 of the Argonaut which worked straight from the box gave them a much easier solution to their fleet requirements. Had the Argonaut purchase been blocked on foreign exchange grounds a lot more efforst would probably have been put into making the Hermes work and the story could have been different.