Handley Page O/400 Bomber

Conceived in 1914 for nighttime bombing runs over the Western Front, the Handley Page bomber was the largest plane built in the U.K. at the time. It was used extensively beginning in 1918 during the final months of the war, with over 400 planes being constructed before the Armistice. The U.S. Air Service also built O/400s under license, but only 33 of the 1,500 planes ordered were built before the contract was canceled at war's end.

The plane has a crew of three: an observer in the nose, equipped with one or two trainable Lewis machine guns and the bombsight; a pilot cockpit with two sets of controls, and a rear gunner cockpit with a one or two trainable dorsal Lewis machine guns and another machine gun in the ventral trapdoor position. The bomb load was carried internally, and/or on two underfuselage hardpoints.

The plane has an endurance of 8 hours. It burns 26.8 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel and ordnance costs $4,080.

Handley Page O/400 (H.P.12)

Subassemblies: Light Fighter-Bomber chassis +3; Light Bomber wings with Biplane and Folding options +4; 1½ Medium Weapon engine pods +1; 4 fixed wheels +1.

Powertrain: Two 268-kW HP gasoline engines [Pods] with two 268-kW old props and 300-gallon fuel tank [Body].

Occ.: 3 XCS Body

Cargo: 8 Body

Armor F RL B T U

Body: 2/2W 2/2W 2/2W 2/2W 2/2W

Wings: 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C

Wheels: 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3

Weaponry:

Aircraft LMG/.303 Vickers [Body:F] (500 rounds).

2xAircraft LMG/.303 Vickers [Body:B] (500 rounds each).

Aircraft LMG/.303 Vickers [Body:U] (500 rounds).

8x250-lb. or 16x112-lb. bombs [Body:U].

Statistics:

Size: 63'x100'x22' Payload: 2.9 tons Lwt.: 7 tons

Volume: 156 Maint.: 36 hours Cost: $30,607

HT: 7. HPs: 165 Body, 600 each Wing, 56 each Pod, 11 each Wheel.

aSpeed: 97 aAccel: 2 aDecel: 31 aMR: 7.5 aSR: 1

Stall Speed: 41 mph. Take-Off Run 240 yards. Landing Run 168 yards.

gSpeed: 140 gAccel: 7 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.25 gSR: 4

Ground Pressure: Extremely High. No Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:

Historical wing area was 1,648 sf. MG load outs are a guess. Design payload was 2.3 tons; the historical value has been substituted. Design aSpeed was 99 mph. Performance calculations were based on historical values for wing area and loaded weight. The weight, cost, and HPs of the wings were reduced by ½ to reduced design weight, Lwt was reduced another 7% to the historical. The design purchases 1½ Medium Weapon subassemblies for the engine pods to more closely reflect the VSPs required and reduce unnecessary weight.

Variants:

The O/100 (or H.P.11) (1915) was the initial version, powered by two 186-kW engines for a maximum speed of 76 mph. 56 were built.

The O/10 (1919) was a post-war conversion of the O/400 designed to carry 12-16 passengers. It had a top speed of 76 mph. 25 planes were so converted.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS