The following information was obtained from www.handley page.com:
"In retrospect, the Handley Page H.P.50 Heyford had the appearance of something that only a mother (or perhaps designer) could love, its heavy-looking biplane structure and spatted main landing gear units suggesting low speed or inefficiency. This impression was heightened by the fact that the fuselage was mounted to the upper wing, strut bracing filling a large gap between the fuselage and lower wing. This layout had a purpose, of course, the lower wing centre-section being of almost double the normal aerofoil thickness to allow bombs to be stowed internally, and brought close to the ground to speed the business of re-arming after a bombing sortie. Other features of the configuration included wings of basic metal structure with fabric covering, a fuselage which was half metal- and half fabric-covered, accommodation for a crew of four, robust tailwheel landing gear, and a braced tailplane carrying twin fins and rudders. Power was provided by two Rolls-Royce Kestrel engines, mounted in nacelles beneath the upper wing, outboard of the fuselage and directly above the main landing gear units. The armament had one more unusual feature to add to the appearance of the Heyford, one of its three defensive machine-guns being mounted in a ventral 'dustbin' turret that could be lowered beneath the fuselage, aft of the wing. The prototype H.P.38 was flown for the first time during June 1930, and successful service testing resulted in the type being ordered, initially as the Heyford Mk I. A total of 124 had been supplied to the RAF by the time that production ended in July 1936, these comprising 15 Heyford Mk I, 23 Heyford Mk IA, 16 Heyford Mk II and 70 Heyford Mk III aircraft; they differed primarily in installed powerplant. Entering service first with No. 99 Squadron at Upper Heyford, Oxon, they eventually equipped also Nos 7, 9, 10, 38, 78, 97, 102, 148, 149 and 166 Squadrons until the last of them were displaced by Vickers Wellingtons in 1939. However, they continued in use for some time, especially in training units, until finally declared obsolete in July 1941 as the last biplane bomber to serve with the RAF. "
I decided to model this plane just because it was so different. I owe many thanks to Mick Morrissey and Massimo Taccoli for providing me with drawings of the Heyford. This is a FSDSv2.24 project and was produced directly into FS2004. It uses a FS2004 .air and.cfg file so I don't think it is compatible with any other simulator "as is". It features the usual moving parts and transparent windows. Please note the "dustbin" turret and the upper rear turret wind screen are actuated with the Shift+E key. The Nav lights are turned on and off with the "L" key. I gave the Heyford a bit of a specular color shine just because I find the dark matte green paint job most of these planes had a little too dark for my taste. (Designer's License!)
INSTALLATION: Unzip HP50.zip into a temporary folder. Copy the folder Handley Page Heyford into the Aircraft folder of FS2004. It will show in the FS2004 aircraft selection list under Handley Page as the HP-50.
PANEL and SOUND: I used the original bitmap from Tom Schaad's HP-42 and modified it to look like a small sketch of the panel in my drawings. There was a hole on the right side for the bombadier-gunner to move back and forth between the cockpit and the forward position. I used default gauges; some of the vintage style FS2004 default gauges look very good for vintage aircraft such as the Heyford. I aliased the DH-88 Comet sound file.
LEGAL: This project is released as freeware. You may modify it, repaint it, etc., upload to another website as long as it is not for profit. You need my written permission to use any of these files for commercial purposes; otherwise just give me credit for the original design. This airplane should not hurt your computer but I am not responsible if it causes problems.
