Design and Development
The Hermes was built to meet the 1944 Air Ministry specification for a pressurised civil transport capable of carrying 34 first-class or 50 tourist-class passengers, at the same time as the RAF required a new transport to replace its Handley Page Halifax, for which Handley Page designed the very similar Handley Page Hastings. Unlike the tail-wheel Hastings, the Hermes was planned to have a nose wheel undercarriage, although the first two prototypes, of which the first was an unpressurised "bare shell" and the second to be pressurised and fully equipped. It was intended to introduce the Hermes before the Hastings, but production was delayed after the first prototype (HP 68 Hermes 1), registered G-AGSS crashed on its maiden flight on 2 December 1945. Development of the civil Hermes was delayed to resolve the instability that caused the accident to the first prototype, and the chance was taken to lengthen the second prototype, producing the HP 74 Hermes II (G-AGUB), first flying on 2 September 1947.
Meanwhile, orders were placed on 4 February 1947 for 25 of the definitive HP 81 Hermes IV, fitted with a tricycle undercarriage and powered by 2,100 hp (1,570 kW) Bristol Hercules 763 engines, for BOAC and two HP Hermes V, powered by the Bristol Theseus turboprop engines.
Read more about this topic: Handley Page Hermes
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