Development
The HP.88 project was designed to Air Ministry Specification E.6/48 as an aerodynamic test bed for the Victor design. The design was originally contracted to General Aircraft (GAL) at Hanworth Aerodrome, but the work was moved to Brough Aerodrome after GAL merged with Blackburn. The HP.88 had a scaled-down equivalent of the Victor's crescent wing and T-tail, and the fuselage was based on the Supermarine Attacker. The design was given the Blackburn/SBAC designation YB-2, and the military serial was VX330.
The fuselage was built by Supermarine with the designation Supermarine 521, and was delivered to the Blackburn factory at Brough. On 21 June 1951, the HP.88 first flew Carnaby near Bridlington. After testing by Blackburn, that revealed pitching problems at high speeds, the HP.88 was delivered to Handley Page, and on 6 August 1951 it flew to Stansted for further testing.
On 26 August 1951, in preparation for the 1951 SBAC Air Display at Farnborough, the HP.88 carried out a high-speed pass over Stansted, and broke-up in mid-air, due to a tailplane servo control system failure. The aircraft had only flown 14 hours, and had little time to gather useful information, but the loss of the aircraft was of little significance to the V bomber project; two prototype Victors were nearing completion by the time of the HP.88's first flight.
Read more about this topic: Handley Page HP.88
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