Elegance in the early 1930's

[PutPut]

I was browsing around the other day and came across a sound file for the Handley Page HP-42 at Britsim. I remember Derek Palmer had done a nice model of it for FS9. I downloaded and installed both in FSX. It shows without problems, even no hassle with the props. The sound file does do it justice so I'm a happy camper. It has no VC but that does not detract from the fun of flying this stately plane along at about 105 mph. This aircraft was the epitome of elegance for it's time. The interior was full of carved wood paneling. Imperial Airways flew it from London to the ends of the earth, (at least the ends of the empire). It flew to India and the Union of South Africa. Don't really know if it went to Australia. Those trips took days as it cruised at 105 mph or there abouts. It was in service for several years and was never involved in a serious accident. Some pundit on another forum said it didn't fly fast enough to crash. Anyway, I am having fun cruising around with it. It trims out hands off so it is great for sight seeing.

Now if someone had a link to a good set of drawings-------------------------!

Best, Paul

69713

[stiz]

drawings of the outside aint a problem, its the cockpit, i've searched high and low and only found 1 ... that doesn't really show anything :crybaby:

[PutPut]

You are right. I did find a nice 3 view with a little effort but this was all I could find on the interior.

Best, Paul

69775

[stiz]

yup thats the only one i ever found as well :crybaby:

[Pips]

I agree. I think the 30's is a very special period of aviation with some wonderful aeroplanes originating from that era. What I really like about the HP42 was that all the aeroplanes were given individual names.

As far as reference goes for pictures, here are a several books that you may be interested in reviewing (library lone?) that may cover cockpits.

* Imperial Airways - From Early Days to BOAC. Lots of photographs, especially of the HP42. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imperial-Airways-Early-Days-BOAC/dp/1840335149/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343430388&sr=1-2

The guy who wrote the book is Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, who is the Director and Senior Archivist of The Aviation Archive. He has access to an enormous number of period photographs. Would be worth your while contacting him to see if he could help out. He is a real 'period' enthusiast. Link for the Aviation Archive is:
http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/

I really like his view on how airline travel has progressed over the years:
"I write about a time when one could telephone for an aeroplane to take you somewhere, go and climb into it and be flown by your own commercial pilot. If you were flying abroad, before walking out onto the paved stone apron and climbing into your machine a friendly Customs man would have cast an eye over your valise, marked it with a discreet chalk cross, smiled and called you 'sir' and wished you a pleasant trip! This was the age when it took ten minutes to get from the airport's free car park into your airliner and be whisked into the sky by a friendly crew who almost always came and chatted with you during the flight.

Today, we have 21st century air travel where you need at least two hours to get from the car park into the euphemistically-named departure lounge. Here compulsory searching and checking, X-raying, metal-detecting, finger-printing and iris scanning, personal data divulging interrogation and scrutiny carried out by an independent, humourless bunch of tough-guys, exhausts you before you ever get as far as the Duty-Free.[...]All this is conducted with an ungracious air that implies that you ought to be grateful he hasn't availed himself of the authority he probably has to have you personally confiscated along with your pocket knife, bottle of cough mixture and silver pipe-smokers' companion!"


Other books that may be worth looking at are:
* Handley Page Aircraft Since 1907
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Handley-Page-Aircraft-Since-1907/dp/0851778038/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343429614&sr=1-2

* BRITISH AIRWAYS an airline and its aircraft, Volume 1 1919-1939, The Imperial Years http://www.amazon.co.uk/BRITISH-AIRWAYS-aircraft-1919-1939-Imperial/dp/1888962240/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343429838&sr=1-9

[PutPut]

Hi, Pips, Thanks for the leads. I certainly will follow up because the more I fly it the more I want to do a FSX native version.:salute:

Best, Paul

[Pips]

If you do Paul, I'll be the first to line up for it! :)

[Lionheart]

Another excellent choice Paul! I would love to see what you do with it.

I flew that from the top of Africa to the bottom, Cape Town I think its called. Took me a week, flying a jump a night, sometimes at 4X speed. Found some cool pics (long ago, back then) of the planes. HUGE!!!! Must have been like our modern day 737-800. What an amazing life span they had.



Bill