Handley Page Hampden - Canadian Museum of Flight - Langley, BC - Static Aircraft Displays on Waymarking.com

"Handley Page developed a modern stressed-skin mid-wing monoplane, powered by Bristol Pegasus radial air cooled engines, with its first flight in 1936. It had the most advanced wings available at the time, giving it a remarkably low landing speed of 73 mph for an aircraft of its size, with a top speed of 265 mph. The Hampden had a short, narrow but tall main fuselage with a very slender tail unit. This configuration led to the nicknames "Flying Panhandle" and "Flying Suitcase". At the end of the war, no complete or partial Hampden aircraft were retained for museum display.

The Hampden went into service in August 1938 with No. 49 Squadron (RAF). A total of 1,432 Hampdens were built, 502 of them by Handley Page, 770 by English Electric and 160 in Canada by the Victory Aircraft consortium. Of the 160 built, 84 were shipped by sea to Britain, while the remainder came to Patricia Bay (Victoria Airport) B.C., to set up No.32 OTU (RAF). Due to heavy attrition from accidents, a number of "war weary" Hampdens were later flown from the U.K. to Pat Bay as replacements.

Typical exercises at 32 OTU consisted of patrolling up the West Coast of Vancouver Island at night or flying out into the Pacific to a navigational map coordinate, often in adverse and unforecast weather.

During operations, the Hampden proved to have serious deficiencies, particularly in its defensive armament, which consisted of five 0.303 inch machine guns. The fixed forward firing gun proved almost useless and the single guns in the nose, dorsal and ventral positions had limited transverse, leaving a number of blind spots. In addition, the cramped conditions led to crew fatigue on long flights, and it was almost impossible for crew members to gain access to each others cockpit in an emergency. Losses during early daylight raids were very heavy.

To improve the defensive armament, the dorsal and ventral positions were each fitted with twin Vickers K machine-guns. In addition, armor plate was installed and flame-damping exhaust pipes were fitted for night flying. Thus modified, the Hampden did useful work in Bomber Command's night offensive from 1940 to 1942, taking part in the RAF's first raid on Berlin and in the 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne. Several overseas RCAF squadrons flew the Hampden, as a bomber and torpedo-bomber.

P5436 was one of the Canadian-built Hampdens. It survived only 100 hours of flying time before crashing near Patricia Bay, on November 15th, 1942, while engaged in torpedo dropping practice. The pilot made the error of turning at low speed and altitude, causing the aircraft to fall into a "stabilized yaw", a known Hampden flaw. The aircraft quickly sank 600 feet to the bottom. The 4-man crew was more fortunate, as the pilot of a passing Stranraer flying boat had seen the mishap, and they were plucked out of the water, with very minor injuries, within minutes.

In the 1980's, CMF salvaged the remains of Hampden AN136 from Mt. Tuam on Saltspring Island, and a later N132 from a mountaintop near Ucluelet. Our underwater recovery crew was aware of P5436, but the exact location continued to elude SONAR and underwater cameras. In 1985, some detective work into wartime RCAF files pinpointed the depth of the wreck, and this was almost immediately rewarded by some beautiful SONAR views of a complete Hampden!

Although fairly complete and mostly intact, the aircraft was badly corroded, damaged, and very fragile, making for a difficult salvage operation that was carried out by a remote controlled submarine aided by video camera. Considering that more than 44 years were spent in salt water, some small components were in magnificent shape. The compass worked, there was air in the tires and greased bearings and drive chains moved freely.

The difficult and costly salvage operation was carried out by Jerry Olsen and his crew of C-LOST (Canadian Lake and Ocean Salvage Team), the Thompson Family of Tillicum Towing of Pender Harbour and International Submarine Engineering who loaned the technical equipment.

Restoration work was driven mainly by volunteer Fred Gardham, who worked on Hampdens in the local aviation industry during WWII, and who had even logged one flight in P5436 following repairs. Vital components from the other two Hampden crash sites were used in the rebuild."

Source - Canadian Museum of Flight - Langley, BC

Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Handley Page Hampden Construction:: original aircraft Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Canadian Museum of Flight - Langley, BC inside / outside: outside Other Information:: Technical Details: RAF P5436 Manufactured: 1942 Engines: Two 1000 hp Bristol Pegasus XVIII engines Maximum speed: 254 mph (409 km/h) Empty weight: 11,780 lb (5,345 kg) Loaded weight: 18,756 lb (8,505 kg) Span: 69 ft 2 in (21.1 m) Length: 53 ft 7 in (16.3 m) Height: 14 ft 11 in (4.5 m) Wing area: 668 sq ft (62.1 sq m) Tail Number: (S/N): Not listed Access restrictions: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/11/2018 Country_Wife visited it