Handley Page Hastings
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| Hastings | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | transport |
| Manufacturer | Handley Page |
| Maiden flight | May 23 1946 |
| Introduced | September 1948 |
| Retired | 1977 (RAF) |
| Primary users | RAF RNZAF |
| Number built | 151 |
The Handley Page HP 67 Hastings was a troop-carrier and freight transport of the Royal Air Force. At the time it was the largest transport plane ever designed for the RAF, and it replaced the Avro York as the standard long-range transport. It had all-metal tapering dihedral wings and a circular fuselage suitable for pressurisation up to 5.5 lbf/in² (38 kPa).
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[edit] History
The Hastings was developed at the same time as the Handley Page Hermes, but was introduced first as the Hermes prototype crashed. The two squadrons equipped with Hastings flew intensively during the Berlin Airlift, and a Hastings made the last sortie of the airlift on October 6, 1949. 100 Hastings C.Mk 1 and 41 Hastings C.Mk 2 were built, and they served on Transport Command's long-range routes until well after the arrival of the Bristol Britannia in 1959.
On 6 July 1965 an RAF Handley Page Hastings C.1A TG577, departing from RAF Abingdon on a skydiving flight, crashed at Little Baldon, Oxfordshire, with the loss of 41 lives. The cause was metal fatigue of two of the elevator bolts.[1]
19 Hastings were later converted to Hastings Met. Mk 1 weather reconnaissance aircraft, and 8 were converted to Hastings T.Mk 5 trainers which were used for training the V-bomber crews; 3 at a time.
The only other nation to order the Hastings was New Zealand, where the Royal New Zealand Air Force's 40 Squadron flew the type until replaced by C130 Hercules in 1965. Four Hastings C.Mk 3 transport aircraft were built and supplied to the RNZAF. One crashed at RAAF Base Darwin and caused considerable damage to the water supply pipeline, the railroad and the road into the city. The other three were broken up at RNZAF Base Ohakea. During the period that the engines were having problems with their sleeve valves (lubricating oil difficulties) RNZAF personnel joked that the Hastings was the best three-engined aircraft in the world.
Three Hastings are preserved in the UK: at the Imperial War Museum Duxford; in the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford; and at Newark Air Museum. The nose of a Hastings is preserved at Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology.
In Germany, one Hastings which served on the Berlin Airlift and was later RAF Gatow's "gate guardian" is preserved in Berlin's Alliierten Museum, or Allied Museum.
[edit] Variants
- Hastings C.1 (HP.67) - 94, Hercules 101 engines
- Hastings C.1A (HP.67) - C.1 rebuilt to C.2 standard
- Hastings Met.1 (HP.67 - 6 C.1 finished for meteorological work with Coastal Command
- Hastings C.2 - 43, Hercules 106 engines, tailplane changes, greater fuel capacity
- Hastings C.3 (HP.95) - 4 built RNZAF only, Hercules 737 engines
- Hastings C.4 (HP.94) - 4 built equipped for VIP and staff
- Hastings T.5 - 8 converted C.1 for RAF Bomber Command with ventral radome to train V bomber crews on the Navigation Bombing System
[edit] Specifications
General characteristics
- Crew: 5-6
- Capacity: 50 troops
- Length: 81 ft 3 in (24.8 m)
- Wingspan: 113 ft 0 in (34.5 m)
- Height: 22 ft 6 in (6.9 m)
- Wing area: 1,408 ft² (130.8 m²)
- Empty weight: 41,689 lb (18,910 kg)
- Loaded weight: 75,000 lb (34,010 kg)
- Powerplant: 4× Bristol Hercules 101, 1,675 hp (1,250 kW) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 343 mph (at 21,500 ft) (552 km/h (at 6,550 m))
- Range: 2,850 miles (4,590 km)
- Service ceiling: 26,700 ft (8,140 m)
- Rate of climb: 1,010 ft/min (310 m/min)
- Wing loading: 53.3 lb/ft² (260 kg/m²)
- Power/mass: 0.089 hp/lb (0.147 kW/kg)
[edit] Operators
[edit] See also
Related development
Designation sequence
H.P.56, 57 - H.P.59 - H.P.61 - HP.62 - H.P.63 - H.P.67 - H.P.68 - H.P.70, 71 - HP.75 - HP.80 - HP.81 - HP.82 - HP.88 -
