Handley Page V/1500 - Development and Design

Development and Design

The V/1500 was produced to meet a British Air Board 1917 requirement for a large night bomber capable of reaching deeper into Germany than the Handley Page O/100 which had recently entered service, carrying a 3,000 lb (1,400 kg) bombload. This implied the ability to bomb Berlin from bases in East Anglia.

While the V/1500 had a similar fuselage to that of the O/900, it had longer-span, four-bay biplane wings and was powered by four 375 hp (280 kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines mounted in two nacelles, so two engines were pulling in the conventional manner and two pushing, rather than the two Eagles of the smaller bomber. Construction was of wood and fabric materials. A relatively novel design feature was the gunner's position at the extreme rear of the fuselage, between the four fins.

Owing to pressure of work at Handley Page's Cricklewood factory, and to ensure security, the first prototype was constructed by Harland and Wolff at Belfast, Northern Ireland, being assembled at Cricklewood and first flying on 22 May 1918. Orders were placed with a number of companies (including Harland and Wolff, Beardmore, Handley Page, Grahame-White and Alliance Aircraft for a total of 210 V/1500s, although only 40 aircraft were completed, with a further 22 produced as spares.