The Fairey Hendon was a British

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually Aerial bomb, bombs) and longest range (aeronautics), range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy ...

of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, designed by

Fairey Aviation The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes, Hillingdon, Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft ...

, and first flown in 1930. The aircraft served in small numbers with one squadron of the RAF between 1936 and 1939. It was the first all-metal construction low-wing monoplane to enter service with the RAF.Taylor 1974, p. 208.

Development

The Hendon was built to meet the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

Specification B.19/27 for a twin-engine night bomber to replace the Vickers Virginia, competing against the Handley Page Heyford and Vickers Type 150. The specification required a range of at a speed of , with a bomb load of .Taylor 1974, p. 209. To meet this requirement, Fairey designed a low-winged

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. The fuselage had a steel tube structure with fabric covering with a pilot, a radio operator/navigator and three gunners, in open nose, dorsal and tail positions. Bombs were carried in ten large and six smaller bomb cells in the fuselage and wing centre section between the engines. Variants powered by either radial engines or liquid-cooled

V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-Cylinder (engine), cylinder Internal combustion engine#Reciprocating engines, piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V engine, V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more c ...

s were proposed.Taylor 1974, pp. 209–210.Mason 1994, pp. 215–216. Fairey Hendon K1695

The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

K1695 (which was known as the Fairey Night Bomber until 1934) first flew on 25 November 1930, from Fairey's Great West Aerodrome in

Heathrow Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

and was powered by two 460 hp (340 kW) Bristol Jupiter VIII radial engines.Mason 1994, p.216.Gallop 2005, p.19 The prototype crashed and was severely damaged in March 1931 and was rebuilt with two Rolls-Royce Kestrel VI engines. After trials, 14 production examples named the Hendon Mk.II were ordered. These were built by Fairey's

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

factory in late 1936 and early 1937 and flown from Barton Aerodrome, Manchester. Orders for a further sixty Hendons were cancelled in 1936, as the prototype of the first of the next generation of British heavy bombers—the

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium/heavy bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the World W ...

—had flown and showed much higher performance.Mason 1994, p. 217. The Hendon Mk.II was powered by two Rolls-Royce Kestrel VI engines. The production Hendon Mk.II included an enclosed

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

for the pilot and navigator.

Operational history

The type was delayed by the crash and a rebuild of the prototype and the Heyford received the majority of the orders to replace RAF heavy bombers, the Hendon coming into service three years later. The only Hendon-equipped unit, 38 Squadron, began operational service at

RAF Mildenhall Royal Air Force Mildenhall, or more simply RAF Mildenhall , is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station located near Mildenhall, Suffolk, Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a List of Royal Air Force stations, ...

in November 1936, replacing Heyfords, later moving to RAF Marham,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. Later, the Hendons went to 115 Squadron, which was formed from 38 Squadron. The type was soon obsolete and replaced from late 1938 by the

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...

. By January 1939, the Hendons had been retired and were then used for ground instruction work, including the radio school at

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the RAF Colleg ...

.Taylor 1974, p. 216.

Variants

; Hendon Mk.I :Prototype, one built ; Hendon Mk.II :Production variant with two Rolls-Royce Kestrel VI engines, 14 built

Operators

** No. 38 Squadron RAF ** No. 115 Squadron RAF ** No. 1 Electrical & Wireless School RAF

Accidents and incidents

Of the 14 Hendon IIs only two were lost in accidents: * December 1937 - ''K5091'' crashed on landing at RAF Marham * November 1938 - ''K5095'' crashed at RAF Marham. This accident occurred when two Leading aircraftmen, neither of whom had any flying training, took the aircraft without permission and stalled the aircraft at .

Specifications (Hendon II)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Crosby, Francis. ''The World Encyclopedia of Fighters and Bombers''. London: Lorenz Books * Gallop, Alan. ''Time Flies: Heathrow At 60''. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2005. * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994. * Taylor, H.A. ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1974. * Thetford, Owen. ''Aircraft of the Royal Air Force, 1918–1957''. London: Putnam, 1957. {{Fairey aircraft

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

1930s British bomber aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1930 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear