Handley-Page V/1500

The Air Board wanted a plane that could bomb Berlin from England, and the Handley-Page V/1500 was the result. It was roughly based on the O/400, but the wings were 25% longer. Push-Pull Rolls-Royce engines were mounted in tandem, giving the V/1500 twice the horsepower of its predecessors. Flight testing of the prototype continued from May through June 1918, and it was only with delivery of the second plane in October 1918 that development resumed. Only three were flying at the time of the Armistice, though there were grand visions of sixty V/1500 squadrons to be flying in 1919.

Two V/1500s stood ready and loaded to fly from Britain to Germany (and -- if possible -- Berlin) on 9 Nov 1918 when a two-day delay was taken to refit the engines. Again they stood ready to fly on 11 November when news of the Armistice arrived and their mission was cancelled. They were kept ready to fly for two further weeks in case the Armistice fell through.

At least forty-one V/1500s were completed and flown and 23 delivered as ready-to-assemble spares, but they were expensive to fly and maintain. The last was retired from No. 24 Squadron in January 1920.

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