Handley Page HP42

[black sapper]

Having a look for photos of these old HP airliners I came across this:
"One aircraft was destroyed in an airship hanger fire in 1937, the rest were all destroyed while in Royal Air Force service mainly due to them not being secured down in the wind"

Does anyone know if they were they actually used by the RAF or simply handed over as a matter of course? Do any photos exist of them in RAF uniform?

[dakkg651]

I have a photograph, taken by my late father C1940, of a HP42 sitting on Khartoum aerodrome. It is not the best quality, but there is no evidence of RAF markings on the fuselage and the aircraft seems to be still in it's bare metal and silver dope finish. The name on the nose seems to be 'Hengist'. He told me that shortly after taking the photo an Italian aircraft dropped a stick of bombs which caused shrapnel injuries to his legs and damaged his eardrums. He did not remember if the 42 was damaged or not, but thought it must have had a pretty severe shaking at the very least!

[Brian Abraham]

History of the individual aircraft can be found here Handley Page H.P.42 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_H.P.42)

[A30yoyo]

Hanno looking a bit terminal....Bristol 1940?

LIFE: Aviation Weather Stations - Hosted by Google (http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?imgurl=6be94b178b5d91dd&q=aviation%20weather%20station%20source:life&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daviation%2Bweather%2Bstation%2Bsource:life%26hl %3Den%26biw%3D1436%26bih%3D684%26tbm%3Disch)

[XV277]

A couple of them carried service markings

[black sapper]

Thanks for info and links folks - most appreciated.

[DeepestSouth]

There is a 2008 PPrune thread about the planned building of a replica - much secrecy but they apparently had the correct engines. The project website is:

Team Merlin - Projects - Imperial 42 - Page 1 (http://www.team-merlin.com/Projects_imperial_42_1.html)

It all seems to have gone very quiet for some years and an e-mail request, some time ago, for an update was unanswered so it may have come to a grinding halt...! Unless, of course, it has been quietly building up to a spectacular first flight from 'an airfield somewhere in Britain'!

DS

[JEM60]

I believe that the man behind the project died. I think it was Mike Russell of Russavia?

[Tim00]

There's some nice footage of Heracles in the 1934 documentary film 'Airport' by Roy Lockwood - engine starting, brief cockpit view, passengers boarding, takeoff, & also servicing, with an engine stripdown & rebuild (with somewhat lower levels of Health & Safety regarding climbing towers & solvents than would be appropriate today).

[Noyade]

RAF uniform?

From Scale Models International - January 1993....

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1893/lastscanlp.jpg (http://img40.imageshack.us/i/lastscanlp.jpg/)

[Wander00]

What was it about Doncaster...?