Handley Page Hampden

General Description

In 1932 the British Air Ministry issued specifications for a high performance twin-engine bomber, and Handley Page answered that call by developing the Hampden, a modern stressed-skin mid-wing monoplane, powered by Bristol Pegasus radial air cooled engines, which was successfully test flown in 1936. It had the most advanced wings available at the time, giving it a remarkably low landing speed of 73 mph for an aircraft of its size, with a top speed of 265 mph. The Hampden had a short and narrow, but tall main fuselage with a very slender tail unit. This configuration led to the nicknames “Flying Panhandle” and “Flying Suitcase”.

The Hampden went into service in August 1938 with No. 49 Squadron (RAF). A total of 1,432 Hampdens were built, 502 of them by Handley Page, 770 by English Electric, and 160 in Canada by the Victory Aircraft consortium. The Hampden was the first mass-produced modern all-metal monoplane built in Canada. The main intention for the awarding the contract was to accustom the fledgling Canadian aviation manufacturing industry and prepare it for larger aircraft production runs.

During combat operations, the Hampden proved to have serious deficiencies, particularly in its defensive armament, which consisted of five .303 machine guns. The fixed forward firing gun proved almost useless and the single guns in the nose, dorsal and ventral positions had limited transverse, leaving many blind spots. In addition, the cramped conditions led to crew fatigue on long flights, and it was almost impossible for crew members to gain access to each others’ areas in an emergency. Hampdens were used for daylight bombing raids in the early part of World War Two, but suffered heavy losses.

To improve the defensive armament, the dorsal and ventral positions were each fitted with twin Vickers K machine-guns. In addition, armor plating was installed, and flame-damping exhaust pipes were fitted for night operations. Thus modified, the Hampden did useful work in Bomber Command’s night offensive from 1940 to 1942, taking part in the RAF’s first raid on Berlin and in the 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne. Several overseas RCAF squadrons flew the Hampden, as both bombers and torpedo-bombers.

Of the 160 built, 84 were shipped by sea to Britain to serve in the European theatre, while the remainder were sent to Patricia Bay (Victoria Airport) B.C., to set up RAF No. 32 OTU (Operational Training Unit). Due to unexpectedly heavy attrition due to accidents, 20 “war weary” Hampdens were later flown from the U.K. to Pat Bay as replacements.

Typical exercises at No. 32 OTU consisted of patrolling up the West Coast of Vancouver Island at night or flying out over the Pacific Ocean for navigation training and mission simulations; often taking place in adverse and un-forecast weather. The Hampdens led a hard life with No. 32 OTU, with as high as two or three airframe losses per month within an 18-month period. Many of these accidents resulted in aircraft and crews lost and were due to bad quirks and poor handling characteristics that the Hampden possessed. By 1944, the Hampdens of No. 32 OUT were ferried to Sea Island (Vancouver Airport) and promptly reduced to spares and ultimately scrapped. At the end of the war, no complete or even partial Hampden aircraft were retained for museum display.

Today, there are three surviving Handley Page Hampden airframes in existence. Two are currently under restoration, while the only Hampden on display anywhere, is at the Canadian Museum of Flight, in Langley, BC.

Our Handley Page Hampden

P5436 was one of the Canadian-built Hampdens. It survived only 100 hours of flying time before crashing into Saanich Inlet near Patricia Bay, on November 15th, 1942. The crew of P5436 were engaged in torpedo dropping practice when the pilot made the error of turning at low speed and altitude, causing the aircraft to fall into a “stabilized yaw”, a known Hampden flaw. The aircraft struck the surface of the water and quickly sank 600 feet to the bottom. The 4-man crew was more fortunate, as the pilot of a passing Stranraer flying boat had seen the mishap, and they were plucked out of the water within minutes, and with only one crew member reporting a minor injury.

There, at the bottom of Saanich Inlet, the Hampden sat until 1985 when the results of some detective work into wartime RCAF files helped pinpoint the depth and location of the wreck. The hard work was almost immediately rewarded by some exceptional SONAR and underwater camera views of a complete Hampden! Although fairly complete and mostly intact, the aircraft was badly corroded, damaged, and very fragile, making for a difficult salvage operation. Due to the depth, this recovery work was carried out by a remote-controlled submarine aided by video camera.

Considering that more than 44 years were spent in salt water, some small components were in magnificent shape. The compass worked, there was air in the tires and greased bearings and drive chains moved freely.

The difficult and costly salvage operation was carried out by Jerry Olsen and his crew of C-LOST (Canadian Lake and Ocean Salvage Team), the Thompson Family of Tillicum Towing of Pender Harbour and International Submarine Engineering who loaned the technical equipment.

Around the same time that the search for Hampden P5436 began, the Canadian Museum of Flight team was also hunting down the remains of other Hampdens that had also crashed while in service with No. 32 OTU. In the early 1980’s, wreckage of Hampden AN136 was salvaged from Mt. Tuam on Saltspring Island, and later AN132 from a mountaintop near Ucluelet.
Restoration work began in 1985 and was driven by museum volunteer Fred Gardham.

Fred worked on Hampdens in the local aviation industry during WWII, and he had even logged one flight in P5436 following repairs prior to its fateful crash. Working from his small downtown Vancouver workshop, Fred Gardham rebuilt the Hampden, component by component, eventually constructing the Hampden at the museum’s Crescent Beach homesite, and then he finally completed the project after the museum had moved to Langley Airport. He did all this while in his 80’s. Vital components from the other two Hampden crash sites were used along with the wreckage of P5436 to create patterns, and for use in the actual rebuild. Now, Hampden P5436 stands as the only Handley Page Hampden currently on display anywhere in the world.