HANDLEY PAGE

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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15.11.1885 Cheltenham/UK - 21.4.1962 London/UK

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Frederick Handley Page graduated as an engineer from University College, London in 1906. After a stay in the United States, he in 1909 opened the Handley Page, Ltd. as the first publicly traded aircraft manufacture. He built a succession of monoplanes and biplanes. In 1914, after World War I had initiated, Handley Page approached the Admiralty to offer planes for the Navy. This led to the development of a twinengine bomber which first flew in 1915. The V/1500 was one of the first four engine aircraft weighing 15 tons and taken into service in late 1918. After the war Handley Page found opportunities in carrying passengers. The 0/400 previously fabricated for the USA became the aircraft for the London-Paris route with minimal modifications. The firm Handley Page Transport HPT opened in 1919 and became one of the world's first airlines. In 1924, the HPT merged with three other carriers and formed Imperial Airways, Britain's first national airline.

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Handley Page had also a strong commitment to research. His company may well have been the first to install its own wind tunnel for in-house experiments. He was keenly interested in air safety. A serious problem of the day lay in the tendency of airplanes to go into a spin and often crash, and he looked for ways to counter this. The solution lay in running a slot down the length of the wing to divide it into two wings set closely together. Airflow through the slot would flow evenly over the wing rear to produce more lift for better wing control. The German Gustav Lachmann (1896-1966) had developed similar ideas and Handley Page brought him into his company. He received a patent for the invention in 1919, and slotted wings became a key to firm's fortunes. In turn, slotted wings led to the development of flaps for wings to give extra lift and also greater drag permitting takeoff and landing at relatively low speed. Handley Page was knighted in 1942; full of years and honors he died in 1962.

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_{Anonymous (1913). F. Handley Page. Flight 5: 245. P}

_{Barnes, C.H. (1987). Handley Page aircraft since 1907. Putnam: London. Gray, C.G. (1949). Forty years on. The Aeroplane 76(6): 724-732.}

_{Handley Page, F. (1921). The Handley Page wing. The Aeronautical Journal 25(6): 263-289. Lachmann, G.V. (1962). Sir Frederick Handley Page. Jahrbuch der WGL: 610-612. Lachmann, G.V. (1964). Sir Frederick Handley Page: The man and his work. Journal Royal Aeronautical Society (7): 433-452. P}