Home

» Equipment

» Aircraft

» Hampden





Hampden

Country United Kingdom Manufacturer Handley Page, Limited Primary Role Medium Bomber Maiden Flight 21 June 1936

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Hampden bombers were designed fast medium bombers with enough weaponry to defend against hostile interceptors if necessary. They were manned with a crew of four. Royal Air Force No. 49 Squadron received the first Hampden bombers in Sep 1938, and by the time the European War began, 226 were in service with eight squadrons. Although they were designed with speed and agility in mind, they were quickly outclassed by German fighters as experienced during early bombing campaigns on German soil. As a result, their role turned into night bombing and mine laying, but even as so, casualty rate for Hampden bombers was still high. They were withdrawn from RAF Bomber Command in late 1942, but they remained in use with RAF Coastal Command, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Russian Air Force. Between 1936 and 1941, 1,430 were built; 500 of them were built by Handley Page, the designing firm, while the others were by English Electric and Canadian Associated Aircraft Consortium. After the war, 200 British Hampden bombers were flown to Canada for use as trainers.

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.

Last Major Revision: May 2007

Hampden Timeline

21 Jun 1936 Handley Page Hampden medium bomber took flight for the first time. 29 Jan 1937 The British Air Ministry placed an order with Handley Page for 180 H.P.52 (later named Hampden) bombers under the specification B.30/36.

SPECIFICATIONS

Hampden



Machinery Two Bristol Pegasus XVIII 9-cylinder radial engines rated at 980hp each Armament 4x or 6x7.7mm Vickers K machine guns (1 flexible, 1 nose, 1 or 2 dorsal, 1 or 2 ventral), 1,814kg of bombs/mines or 1x18in torpedo Crew 4 Span 21.09 m Length 16.32 m Height 4.37 m Wing Area 63.90 m² Weight, Empty 5,344 kg Weight, Loaded 8,508 kg Speed, Maximum 410 km/h Rate of Climb 5.00 m/s Range, Normal 1,095 km

Did you enjoy this article? Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you. Share this article with your friends: Facebook

Reddit

Twitter

Stay updated with WW2DB: RSS Feeds

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments

All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.