Heracles, the world’s largest airliner
Welcome to this latest edition of our Workbench blog and all the news, updates and modelling exclusives from the fascinating world of Airfix.
We are heading for an enjoyable instalment of Airfix modelling nostalgia in this latest edition of Workbench, as we look at a model kit which has taken its place in our Vintage Classics range during 2021 and is a scale representation of an aircraft type which was one of the true wonders of the aviation world when it made its first flight almost exactly 91 years ago this weekend. Featuring a beautiful selection of built model images, the star of this week’s blog is the Handley Page H.P 42 Heracles airliner, an aircraft which was built to ‘open up’ the British Empire and to allow safe, reliable and regular flights to such exotic destinations as Egypt, India and South Africa.
Possessing the appearance of some gigantic pterodactyl, it is difficult to comprehend that just ten years after this magnificent aircraft first took to the air, Europe would be in the teeth of war, with a new breed of sleek, fast monoplanes dominating the world’s skies. Although the Heracles could hardly look more different from the aircraft which contested the Second World War, let’s indulge ourselves in a previous golden era for British aviation for a short while, a time when everything still seemed to be in something of a ‘pioneering’ stage for aviation.
Imperial Airways have their ‘Giant’
When we are talking Vintage Classics models, it’s not just the kit that occupies ann important position in Airfix heritage, it is very much the original artwork too. This stunning work came from the talented hands of Mr Roy Cross.
When Handley Page H.P 42 Heracles G-AAGX (later to be christened Hannibal) took to the skies for the first time from Radlett Aerodrome on Friday 14th November 1930, the eyes of the aviation world were looking towards this recently opened airfield in Hertfordshire. The company aerodrome of Handley Page Aviation. The field had only officially been opened in July of that same year, when Prince George flew in for a tour of the facilities and to lead a ceremony to announce the opening of this grass airfield. In November, press and newsreel teams would once again descend on Radlett, this time to witness the first flight of an aviation behemoth, the new Handley Page H.P 42, an aircraft which at that time was the largest passenger carrying commercial aircraft in the world. Intended to be the pride of the Imperial Airways fleet, these aircraft were built in response to Germany’s domination of the civilian aviation market and enabled Britain to take a lead in this fascinating aviation race one more. The aircraft would prove to be a huge success for the Handley Page company.
There is no doubt that any modeller and aviation enthusiast will be able to provide a list containing any number of aircraft which they feel could qualify as being famous or ground-breaking in one way or another, however, it is unlikely that the Handley Page H.P 42 will be on many of those lists, even though in its day, it really did satisfy all the criteria for consideration as a ground-breaking design. A gigantic civilian passenger and Royal Mail carrier, the H.P 42 must have attracted the attention of the entire world when making its first flight and even if just by virtue of its immense size, demanded the attention of anyone fortunate enough to see it, be that as a picture, as a cinema newsreel feature, or if you were lucky enough, in the metal!
Building into a beautiful scale representation of this historic British airliner, the Handley Page H.P 42 was big news when it first took to the skies on 14th November 1930.
A beautifully elegant four engined, unequal span sesquiplane airliner from the very early days of passenger air travel, the Handley Page H.P 42 was designed to serve the Empire air routes into the Middle East, Africa and India, carrying its passengers in style, comfort and at that time, speed. With the engines mounted well away from the passenger cabin, travel in the H.P 42 was said to be impressively quiet and was likened at the time to travelling in a first class pullman railway carriage. This is probably just as well, because the aircraft’s cruising speed of just 105 mph meant that any journey undertaken was likely to be a long one, especially if flying into a headwind.
One of the undoubted benefits of flying in one of these magnificent aircraft would have been that when operating at lower altitudes, they would have afforded their passengers a fabulous view of the outside world, with famous landmarks and stunning countryside all visible if the weather was favourable. These land based aircraft were operated by Imperial Airways in conjunction with their existing flying boat service, but with more airports opening all the time, they undoubtedly pointed to the future of passenger air travel.
The pride of Britain’s pioneering Imperial Airways fleet, this giant airliner was an attempt to regain passenger flight supremacy from the German aviation industry and at the time of its introduction, it had the distinction of being the largest passenger aircraft in regular use anywhere in the world. In total, only eight of these magnificent machines would eventually be built, four with larger freight and mail carrying capabilities to serve the longer range Eastern Empire routes, with a further four aircraft, designated H.P 45, built to carry more passengers and intended for use on European routes - two of these would later be converted to the longer range H.P.42 configuration. Importantly, these majestic aircraft would go on to set exemplary safety records during their years of service, carrying many thousands of passengers safely at a time when scheduled air travel was still in its relative infancy. This is made all the more impressive when considering that some of the more wide reaching routes flown by these aircraft included destinations such as Cape Town, Calcutta and Brisbane.
The Handley Page Heracles enters service
Entering service in 1931, the Handley Page H.P.42 was described as offering 24 hour service and embarked on its passenger flying duties at a time of great expansion for civilian aviation. Operating from London’s Croydon Airport, the capital’s main airport at that time, these massive aeroplanes must have made for a truly impressive sight and for those lucky enough to be able to fly on one, they must have felt rather special. Over the next few years however, the world would also see the introduction of such aviation classics as the Junkers Ju52 and Douglas DC-2 monoplane airliners and by the mid 1930s, Croydon Airport would be a service hub for all three of these classic types. Even though the Handley Page airliner may have looked like an aircraft from an earlier era of flight compared to these new monoplane designs, it would still surely have cut the most impressive figure of the trio to anyone viewing the days flying activities.
Earning a reputation for comfort and safe operation, the record holding H.P.42 became a hugely popular aircraft with the British public, many of whom dreamt they might one day be able to take a flight on one of these magnificent aeroplanes, in much the same way Concorde captivated the nation many years later. During a nine year service period with Imperial Airways, their eight aircraft Handley Page fleet would amass a combined service miles flown record in excess of 10 million miles, with not a single passenger fatality to its name.
The H.P.42E (Eastern) variants of the aircraft were intended for use on the longer African and Middle/Far Eastern routes, with less seats for passengers and more room for the aircraft to carry luggage and mail. The H.P.42 W (Western) aircraft were configured slightly differently and were intended to service the shorter European routes. These aircraft were fitted with more seats for passengers and required less room for luggage and freight, however, two of the four constructed this way were later converted for service on the Eastern routes. The majority of these aircraft would be based at Cairo Airport whilst serving this popular route.
With war in Europe looking increasingly likely, several of the remaining Handley Page H.P.42 airliners were pressed into Royal Air Force service, but were of only limited use by this time. Aircraft G-AAXC ‘Heracles’ would mainly be employed on the London-Paris-Cologne-Zurich routes and by the summer of 1937 had safely amassed an impressive record of flying one million miles on these routes. She would be pressed into RAF service early in 1940, but would later suffer severe damage at Bristol Whitchurch Airport, when a storm lifted the aircraft and brought her crashing down on another H.P.42 - both machines were subsequently scrapped.
Airfix honour an aviation classic
Although only eight of these gigantic early British airliners were eventually built, they still occupy an important position in the history of British aviation and is definitely a subject worthy of modeller attention.
From the perspective of Airfix modelling history, our beautiful 1/144th scale tooling of the Handley Page H.P.42 Heracles first appeared in a kit range back in 1965 and immediately found favour with modellers as one of the more interesting aircraft types produced in scale model kit form. Adding to the appeal of the new model, it also benefited from stunning box artwork produced by an icon of the modelling world, Mr Roy Cross, a man whose work was probably responsible for introducing many thousands of people to the modelling hobby over the years. The stunning original artwork depicts one of these graceful aeroplanes flying over a classic Egyptian landscape which includes a pair of pyramids, an attractive and evocative image which played no small part in securing the enduring popularity of this particular kit.
Released into our popular Vintage Classics range earlier this year, this 1/144th scale Handley Page H.P 42 Heracles kit will allow modelers with fond memories of building this model many years ago to bring all their finely honed skills to tackling it once more. At the same time, it will also introduce this relatively obscure, yet incredibly historic aircraft type to a new audience of modellers keen to embark on a slightly more unusual subject for their latest build project. Although it might look a little ungainly when compared to something like the Spitfire which continues to enjoy such widespread modelling appeal, the Handley Page H.P 42 was every inch the cutting edge aeroplane when it first took to the air in November 1930 and deserves to be considered as a historically significant British aircraft in its own right. For most of us, we can only imagine how magnificent a sight one of these aviation beasts must have been in their heyday, however, this recent addition to our Vintage Classics range will at least allow us to have the benefit of a scale representation of the type in our display cabinets.
This next series of images show different angles of the beautiful built sample of our Handley Page H.P 42 Heracles Vintage Classic kit, along with the decoration details included with the kit, which include options to finish your model as either G-AAXC ‘Heracles’ of G-AAXF ‘Helena’.
This appealing kit also includes decal options to allow modeller to finish their build as Handley Page H.P 42 Heracles G-AAXF ‘Helena’ if they so wish, another one of the eight aircraft produced which eventually entered service. Initially constructed to serve as a ‘Western route’ aircraft, ‘Helena’ would later be converted to operate the longer range Eastern service, but with the outbreak of the Second World War, would also be pressed into Royal Air Force service. After suffering a particularly heavy landing, the aircraft was subjected to a full structural inspection and during this procedure was discovered to be suffering from corrosion.
In a sad but perhaps historically predictable ending for these majestic early British airliners, she would also suffer the indignity of being unceremoniously scrapped on the airfield where she lay, an aviation inconvenience for a nation which now had more pressing matters on its mind. If only one of these magnificent aeroplanes could have been preserved as part of the nation’s aviation heritage, the world’s largest passenger aircraft in regular use anywhere in the world in its day.
The Handley Page H.P 42 Heracles is still currently available on the Airfix website, but once it is marked as out of stock, may still be available at your local model store.
Vintage Classics - which models would you like to see return?
With many hundreds of scale model toolings in the Airfix back catalogue, our Vintage Classics range allows some kits which play a big part in the heritage of the brand to take their place on our workbenches once more, including some slightly more obscure, but no less interesting types, such as this fantastic Henschel Hs123A-1 attack biplane.
Since taking its place in the Airfix range back in 2018, our Vintage Classics models have proved to be an incredibly popular modelling link to the impressive kit heritage of the Airfix brand and in truth, have exceeded even our most optimistic of expectations. With the range now going from strength to strength, it was initially launched with a collection of 25 kits which encompassed such subject matter as figures, ships, aircraft both civilian and military, cars and military vehicles and covering several different scale sizes. Each model uses the original classic and much-loved Airfix tooling, with each model also benefiting from the magnificent artwork produced to support their release, which inspired so many modellers and were created by a number of the extremely talented illustrative artists used by Airfix over the years.
As most of these kits have been released several times over the years, some of the artwork which adorned the boxes has gone through several different incarnations, some which will be more familiar to some modellers than others, depending on their age and previous modelling activity. It was decided that we would use the artwork which was arguably the most famous or dramatic when associated with a particular release, whilst also showcasing the talents of a number of different artists used by Airfix over the years. To help identify where the individual kit appears in the production timeline of Airfix kit heritage, the new box presentation used on each ‘Vintage Classics’ release will include the year in which the model, or figure assortment, were first introduced into the Airfix range. Although the classic artwork and new heritage logo clearly identify these kits as something a little different in the range, we felt that modellers would be interested to find out when the model appeared in an Airfix catalogue for the first time.
During the extensive investigations which took place prior to the announcement of the Vintage Classics range, fascinating Airfix gems such as this original Panther Tank artwork transparency were unearthed, something any Airfix fan will enjoy seeing.
Some much loved Airfix classics have already found their way back into recent ranges, such as the chunky little Henschel Hs123A-1 attack biplane, which originally went into tooling in 1970 and the even earlier Panther Tank, the tooling for which was produced back in 1961 and is probably a very familiar kit to many thousands of Workbench readers. From a blog production perspective, it has been such a treat to include these iconic pieces of box artwork and kits which are familiar to so many people within Workbench, a feature which seems set to continue for the foreseeable future. As well as looking at the stories behind the very latest model toolings and watching their advancement towards initial release, we now also have the opportunity to discover the fascinating stories behind some of the classic schemes which have graced model releases from years past, kits which are being unleashed upon the modelling world once more.
One such release is our Hawker Siddeley Dominie T.1, an aircraft type which has long since disappeared from RAF airfields up and down the country, but one which has once again come to the attention of the scale modelling community.
Hawker Siddeley Dominie T.1 XS712 was one of the first 20 Series 2 aircraft built specifically for the Royal Air Force as a navigation instruction trainer. One of the original aircraft delivered to RAF Stradishall between August 1965 and July 1966, it was destined to take over training duties from the station’s Gloster Meteors, which had been providing high speed navigation training until that date. Initially, students would undertake low and slow training in the station’s Vickers Varsity aircraft, with the new Dominies providing high and fast training support, half of which would be carried out at night.
More Roy Cross artwork magic, this time featuring the elegant looking RAF Hawker Siddeley Dominie T.1.
When this aircraft first arrived at Stradishall, it would have been delivered in a natural metal scheme, with red dayglow training bands on its nose and tail. This early scheme would have been quickly replaced by the classic red, white, silver and grey scheme which was synonymous with the RAF training aircraft of this period and the scheme immortalised by Roy Cross in the iconic artwork which featured on the box of this popular release.
Dominie T.1 XS712 would go on to serve with No.6 Flying Training School at RAF Finningley between 1970 and 1995, before spending the final 16 years of its service life at RAF Cranwell with No.3 FTS and No.55(R) Squadron. During its service at Cranwell, the classic red and white scheme would have given way to the slightly less iconic, but equally attractive black and white scheme which was applied to all of the RAF’s training aircraft inventory from 1998 onwards.
The final graduation of RAF Dominie T.1 trained students took place on 19th January 2011 and with it, signalled the end of this handsome and extremely hard working aircraft in Royal Air Force service. The following day, six Dominies from No.55(R) Squadron took part in the final operational sortie of the type in RAF service, as six aircraft performed an impeccable formation flypast over their home station – XS712 was one of the aircraft to take part in this historic event. The aircraft would later be sold with five others to a civilian owner at Kemble airfield, re-registered N19CQ and placed into storage. It would eventually end its days as an active ground handling training aircraft with the BAE Systems R.J Mitchell Aircraft Maintenance Academy at Humberside Airport, arriving there in 2015.
With the announcement of each new Airfix range being a time of great excitement for modellers everywhere, as we all look to see if our particular favourite subject has made it as a new tooling project, we also now have the added attraction of seeing if our favourite ‘Classic’ has made it back into the range. With the announcement of the 2022 range now not all that far off, if you could choose an existing Airfix tooling to take its place in the Vintage Classics range, which one would you choose? Please drop us a quick line and let us know, using our workbench@airfix.com e-mail address, as it would be interesting to see how many of your suggestions make it into the next Vintage Classics range and indeed which models prove to be the most heavily requested.
We are afraid that’s all we have for you in this latest edition of Workbench, but we will be back next week with more modelling news from the wonderful world of Airfix. As always, if you have any comments about the blog or would like to suggest a subject you would like to see covered in a future edition, please do drop us a quick line at our usual workbench@airfix.com address.
To catch up with all the latest Airfix news, please check our various official social media sites, or head for the Airfix website.
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