Handley Page Hermes
The Handley Page Hermes was a British pressurised airliner built by Handley Page as the civil counterpart of the RAF's Hastings transport. The first prototype was lost on its maiden flight in December 1945, and the production Hermes IV did not enter BOAC service until 6 August 1950, on routes to West and South Africa. Handley Page built 29 in all at Radlett: one Hermes I and one Hermes II prototype, 25 Hermes IVs and two turboprop Hermes V development aircraft. BOAC replaced the type with Canadair Argonauts in 1952, but second-hand aircraft flew on with British independent airlines on trooping and charter work until 1964. Only a fuselage survives, at Duxford.
Why It Mattered
The Hermes was Handley Page's postwar airliner, developed in parallel with the Hastings military transport to meet a specification for a pressurised civil transport for Britain's long-distance routes. Its development set the pattern for a difficult career: the first prototype was destroyed on its maiden flight, and the production aircraft reached BOAC about a year late because the early Hermes IVs were overweight. BOAC flew it on its African services for only two years before turning to the Canadair Argonaut, but the type then spent more than a decade with Britain's independent airlines on trooping and charter work. A single fuselage survives at Duxford, which the British Airliner Collection calls the oldest surviving British pressurised airliner.
Design Notes
Handley Page designed the Hermes and the Hastings together, and the two were similar enough to be built on the same primary assembly jigs. The clearest difference was the undercarriage: the military aircraft kept a tailwheel, while the Hermes was planned with a nosewheel, although the two prototypes were completed with tailwheels. Specification 15/43 asked for a pressurised cabin holding 34 first-class or 50 tourist-class passengers; the first prototype was an unpressurised shell, and the second was pressurised and fully equipped. The production Hermes IV combined a tricycle undercarriage with four Bristol Hercules radial engines of 2,100 hp, and it needed a flight crew of five. Alongside it, Handley Page built two Hermes V development aircraft whose piston engines gave way to Bristol Theseus turboprops.
Operational History
The first prototype, G-AGSS, crashed shortly after takeoff on its maiden flight on 2 December 1945, killing Handley Page's chief test pilot and chief test observer; the aircraft is believed to have suffered severe longitudinal instability from elevator overbalance. The second prototype was lengthened into the Hermes II and flew on 2 September 1947; the first Hermes IV followed on 5 September 1948. Handley Page built 29 Hermes at Radlett: one Hermes I and one Hermes II prototype, 25 Hermes IVs and two Hermes Vs. The first Hermes IVs were overweight, partly through their use of Hastings components, and only after weight-saving changes did BOAC open service on 6 August 1950, flying from London Heathrow to Accra via Tripoli, Kano and Lagos, with Kenya and South Africa services following before the end of the year. In May 1952 a BOAC Hermes flew off course, ran out of fuel and force-landed in the Sahara south of Atar, Mauritania; everyone survived the landing, though the first officer later died of a head injury. That August an Airwork Hermes ditched off Sicily, near Trapani, after two engines failed and the other two were expected to follow; six passengers and an air hostess drowned. BOAC replaced the Hermes with the Canadair Argonaut in 1952, though a few returned in July 1954 while the Comet fleet was grounded, retiring again that December. Surplus aircraft went to independent airlines — Airwork bought four in 1952, and Britavia and Skyways flew others, particularly on trooping work — and later flew inclusive-tour holiday flights. The last civil Hermes was retired on 13 December 1964 and scrapped nine days later; the Hermes II prototype, as VX234, flew radar research for the Royal Radar Establishment until 1969, the final Hermes in operation.
Afterlife
No complete Hermes survives: most of the type had already been scrapped as obsolete by the time of the final flight in 1969, and a single example has been partially preserved. What remains is the fuselage of G-ALDG, a former BOAC Hermes IV named Horsa, preserved at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. The British Airliner Collection lists the fuselage as the only Hermes still in existence and the oldest surviving British pressurised airliner. Displayed inside the AirSpace hangar, at the rear of the building, the fuselage now houses the Duxford Aviation Society Museum.