1/4 Scale 18' Handley Page Hampden

[tony hooper]

Many of you will know that Mike Eccles started this "scratch built" project over 5 years ago and had displayed it at several LMA static events in various stages of construction. In June 2016 I took the project over as Mike was finding it too much to manhandle. I soon discovered what he meant!!
With the assistance of Paul Dudley and Barrie Rider of Kingfisher Aviation and a discounted purchase of 2 EME 120cc engines from Steve at Propguy the aircraft was ready for its test flight one year later on 19th June 2017. The undercarriage modifications (the originals were built by the famous Ray Slack) carried out by Barrie Rider were totally reliable.

Hampden(1).jpg (41.83 KiB) Viewed 6128 times

Hampden(3).jpg (156.9 KiB) Viewed 6128 times

Hampden (2).jpg (153.67 KiB) Viewed 6128 times

It flew extremely well after a few seconds of trimming with the EME engines sounding magnificent and also proving totally reliable - always a worry on a twin engine aircraft!.
However after landing a check of the airframe revealed quite serious stress cracks on the centre wing panels - they are constructed of foam which is covered with balsa and glass cloth. I decided that the centre panels would require extensive modification and it would be unwise to continue with the Over 20kg test flight programme. I shall now be looking for a "Museum home" as it would make an excellent centre piece somewhere.

Thanks to all those who have assisted in this project and expressed their interest - in large model terms perhaps "a bridge too far"
I attach some photos and also the URL for a video of the test flight taken by Nigel Davies at Long Marston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VnX8m-A8uQ

[steve stuttard]

your link comes up as not private please can you check it out

[Rob Buckley]

Youtube link fixed

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

Shame about the outcome Tony, but congrats about getting her finished, looked great in flight, re tge museum thing, how about cosfords restoration shop? They are making great inroads with their Hampden

[stuart knowles 1611]

That's a real shame, The Hampden looked really good and I was looking forward to seeing a different shape in the air. Commiserations to all involved in getting it this far

[Alasdair Sutherland]

That's a real shame Tony.
Having seen it at Haydock I was looking forward to seeing it fly.
No chance that beefing up the mainspar would make it flyable?
What does Phil your inspector say?