Handasyde H.2

{{Infobox aircraft | name = Handasyde H.2 | logo = | logo_size = | image = File:Handasyde H.2 3-view Flight July 20, 1922.jpg | alt = | caption = Three-view drawing of the H.2, from 20 July 1922 issue of ''Flight''. | long_caption = | other_names = | aircraft_type = Six-passenger airliner | aim = | outcome = | related = | national_origin = UK | manufacturer = Handasyde Aircraft Co. | design_group = | designer = George Handasyde | builder = | issuer = | status = | owners = | primary_user = | more_users = | service = | major_applications = | proposals = | prototypes = | number_built = 1 | construction_number = | civil_registration = | military_serial = | radio_code = | requirement = | aircraft_carried = | flights = | total_hours = | total_distance = | construction_date = | introduction = | retired = | first_flight = 9 December 1922 | initiated = | in_service = | last_flight = | expected = | developed_from = | variants = | developed_into = | preservation = | fate = | predecessors = | successors = | concluded = }}

The '''Handasyde H.2''' was a six seat airliner built in the UK in the early 1920s. Only one was completed.

==Design and development==

The Handasyde Aircraft Company was formed in 1921 by George Handasyde in collaboration with the ex-Martinsyde manager Hamilton Fulton. Their first product was the Handasyde glider which took part in the 1922 Itford competition.<ref name=OH/> Soon after, they began the design and construction of a six passenger airliner, the Handasyde H.2.<ref name=Flight1/>

This was a monoplane with its two-part, cantilever wing mounted on top of the fuselage. The largely wooden wing was irregularly trapezoidal in plan, thick in the centre and thinning, with a change in profile to flat-bottomed, outwards. Its four spar construction was unusual and it was spruce skinned, also unusual at the time. Ailerons extended to the wing tips, increasing in chord as they did.<ref name=Flight1/><ref name=Lailes1/>

The H.2 was designed to be powered by a {{convert|360|hp|kW|abbr=on}}, water-cooled V-12 Rolls-Royce Eagle IX engine mounted in the nose,<ref name=Flight1/><ref name=Lailes1/> though the only completed prototype had a {{convert|350|hp|kW|abbr=on}} Eagle VII because of Handasyde's limited finances.<ref name=RS/> Its honeycomb radiator was mounted underneath the cowling between the forward undercarriage struts. Behind the engine the fuselage was flat-sided and deep, with the pilot in an open cockpit recessed into the wing leading edge. The passenger cabin was behind the pilot and under the wing, entered by forward doors on each side. There were three seats on each side, each with a window; the cabin had a forward space for luggage and a toilet at the rear. In an emergency passengers could escape through a roof trapdoor at the wing trailing edge.<ref name=Flight1/><ref name=Lailes1/>

The completed H.2 had an almost straight-edged, broad-chord fin with a polygonal, slightly pointed, balanced rudder which reached down to the keel.<ref name=Flight2/> Its tailplane, which could be trimmed in flight, was mounted on top of the fuselage and carried separate elevators; in plan the horizontal tail was trapezoidal.<ref name=Flight1/><ref name=Lailes1/>

It had an unusual four wheel undercarriage, with two mainwheels under the wings and another, smaller diameter pair under the nose. There was also a tailskid for braking on landing<ref name=Flight1/><ref name=Lailes1/> though, at least when it was unloaded, it rested on four wheels on the ground.<ref name=Flight2/> The mainwheels were on cranked axles from the lower fuselage longerons, which also mounted the forward drag struts. There were vertical shock-absorber legs to the wings. The forward wheels were on a rigid axle mounted at each end on V-struts from the same longerons.<ref name=Flight1/>

Three H.2s were ordered by the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company (LASCo) of Australia to serve routes from Adelaide to Sydney and to Brisbane. They were to be built at the old Blériot works at Addlestone by The Air Navigation and Engineering Company (ANEC). The Blériot & Spad company had changed its name in January 1918 to The Navigation Company and then to ANEC in August 1919. The first of the three H.2s flew for the first time from Brooklands on 9 December 1922, piloted by Frank Courtney. He reported that its controls were light and its handling generally good.<ref name=RS/> Tests there continued into the spring of 1923,<ref name=Flight2/> when it became apparent that the H.2 had problems which would block its Certificate of Airworthiness (CofA). Development stopped with only the prototype completed and the Handasyde concern went into liquidation early in 1924.<ref name=RS/>

The H.2 cabin structure, landing gear and Eagle VIII engine mountings were incorporated into the 1926 ANEC III. This was a biplane and was about 30% longer though still a six-seater; three were used in Australia by LASCo.<ref name=RS/>

==Specifications== {{Aircraft specs |ref=Les Ailes, June 1923<ref name=Lailes1/> |prime units?=imp  |genhide=

|crew=One |capacity=six passengers |length m=10.64 |span m=15.8 |span in=6 |span note= |height m= |height ft= |height in= |height note= |wing area sqm=42 |wing area note= |aspect ratio= |airfoil= |empty weight kg= |empty weight lb= |empty weight note= |gross weight kg= |gross weight lb=5000 |gross weight note=designed<ref name=RS/> |max takeoff weight kg= |max takeoff weight lb= |max takeoff weight note= |fuel capacity= |more general= *'''useful load:''' {{convert|1200-1500|lb|kg|abbr=on}}<ref name=RS/>  |eng1 number=1 |eng1 name=Rolls-Royce Eagle IX |eng1 type=water-cooled V-12 at 1,080 rpm |eng1 hp=360 |more power=

|perfhide=

}}

==References== {{reflist|2|refs=

<ref name=OH>{{cite book |title= British Light Aeroplanes|last=Ord-Hume|first=Arthur W.J.G.| year=2000|pages=526–7|publisher=GMS Enterprises |location=Peterborough |isbn=1 870384 76 8 }}</ref>

<ref name=RS>{{cite book |title= Bleriot in Britain 1899–1927|last=Sanger|first=Ray| year=2008|pages=147, 163–168, 175 | publisher=Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd|location=Tonbridge, Kent |isbn=0 85130 399 4}}</ref>

<ref name=Flight1>{{cite journal |date=20 July 1922 |title=The Handasyde Monoplane, Type H.2|journal= Flight|volume=XIV |issue=29 |pages=412–416 |url= https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1922/1922%20-%200412.html}}</ref>

<ref name=Flight2>{{cite journal |date=31 May 1923 |title=Photo caption|journal= Flight|volume=XV |issue=22 |pages=290 |url= https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1923/1923%20-%200290.html}}</ref>

<ref name=Lailes1>{{cite journal |last=Serryer |first=J. |date=14 June 1923|title=Le Monoplan Handasyde|journal=Les Ailes|issue=104 |pages=2|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6556050j/f2.item}}</ref>

}}  {{commonscat|Handasyde aircraft}} {{Martinsyde aircraft}}

Category:1920s British airliners Category:Martinsyde aircraft

Handasyde H.2

Connections

Linked from

Links to (30 total)