Warbird Information Exchange

http://www.canadianflight.org/collect/col_11.htm
hey folks, here is a link to the handley page hampden page. this plane is located at the canadian museum of flight in langley b.c. canada. this is an ultra rare aircraft, one of only two known to exist, as far as i know. i live a short distance from this museum and had absolutely no idea that they had a plane of this rarity. i have toured it myself and i can say that the plane is in reasonable shape considering that it is a static outdoor display. however there is no possibility of it ever becoming airworthy again due to corrosion issues. i will visit the museum again soon and take some up close and personal shots of the plane and attempt to post them as soon as i can. cheers sim.

Thanks for your posting. This is a pretty remarkable restoration. I remember the tangled mess that they recovered from the water...back in the late eighties I think, and it's amazing what they managed to do with it. I think that a good chunk of the cockpit actually came from the RAF museum too, but can't remember all of the details. I have always wanted to see more detailed photographs of her, so please do post some when you go back.

Does anyone know how faithful the restoration is to the original design?

Cheers,
Richard

from talking with the museum curator and my own observations the airframe is basically as they originally were. a lot of the plane has been re skinned and there are only fibreglass face plates where the engines were. apparently they do have the actual engines from the plane but they dont want to put too much weight on the wings. this is an amazingly narrow aircraft and i can tell you that it must have been terrifying to fly in it on bombing raids. very limited mobility within the aircraft, dreadfully inadequate armament, and questionable handling characteristics make this a ride for only the bravest of souls. take a closeup look at this bird and you will see what i mean!! throw on a load of bombs and a full tank of fuel and just for fun get some guys to do everything within their power to bring you back down to earth against your will and you have to be absolutely amazed at the courage that these men had back in the war. ill post more pics when i get them. any pics or links to the other hampden in england out there??? cheers sim.

from talking with the museum curator and my own observations the airframe is basically as they originally were. a lot of the plane has been re skinned and there are only fibreglass face plates where the engines were. apparently they do have the actual engines from the plane but they dont want to put too much weight on the wings. this is an amazingly narrow aircraft and i can tell you that it must have been terrifying to fly in it on bombing raids. very limited mobility within the aircraft, dreadfully inadequate armament, and questionable handling characteristics make this a ride for only the bravest of souls. take a closeup look at this bird and you will see what i mean!! throw on a load of bombs and a full tank of fuel and just for fun get some guys to do everything within their power to bring you back down to earth against your will and you have to be absolutely amazed at the courage that these men had back in the war. ill post more pics when i get them. any pics or links to the other hampden in england out there??? cheers sim.

They don't have a curator.

More remarkable is that the Fred, who did the lions share of the restoration was in his 70's and 80's!

There's lots of fiberglass, wood and new sheet metal but it does have a considerable amount of original parts on it. Also I believe that Hampden was built up from 3 different aircraft, RCAF #'s AN132, AN136 and P5436.

An interesting looking plane.

Brian....

tanks for the correction on the curator title. the fellow that showed us around the place was so knowledgable about everything in there that i didnt know what else to call him. head volunteer,staff member,restoration expert, you choose a name yourself.

Hi All,

Wasn't there a substantial portion or complete Hampden airframe raised from a Scandanavian water/lake recently. I think I recall reading about one such item within the past 4-5 years. If memory serves me correctly, it is (?) now in the UK under rebuild. Does anyone else have any info on this to maybe shed some additional light ??

Paul

Lincolnshire in Kirkby has one, Cosford has one, Hunt brothers have one, and then the one in Canada.

Not sure of the completeness of the airframes, but I'm pretty sure the Hunt's is probably the worst off.

The Hampdens extant as seen from the 'Home Front'.

1) AE436 at East Kirkby, Lincolnshire UK. Recovered from a Mountain crash in Sweden, circa 1960's. Front end only. Under long term restoration, in private ownership.

2) P1344 at RAF Cosford, Shropshire UK. Recovered from Russia to the UK in 1991. Substantial crash remains under restoration for/by the RAF Museum.

3) Crash parts from Russia with the Kevin and Daniel Hunt. No serial.

4) P5436 at the Canadian Museum of Flight. Local salt water recovery.

Here is a shot of the Vancouver recovery that I took in August 1986.



...and here a shot of P1344 in September 1991. As a member of the team that recovered this aircraft, I had the parts laid out to max effect prior to exchange negotiation with the RAF Museum.



There is irony here. The RAF Museum never expected that a Hampden would surface and parted with their original front end nose glazing to the Canadians.

PeterA

Peter, as per Kevin and Daniel Hunt website, Hampden serial is P1273.

Thanks Ben,

Do you have the link to the website please?

PeterA

wow ! thanks for the great photos peter. what a job it must be to put all of that back into something that resembles an airplane!! it really puts the airframe out in langley into a new perspective for me. do you have any more pics that you would be willing to share?? thanks sim.

www.huntaircraftrecovery.com should get you in the ballpark. cheers sim.

Sim,

That site will not open for me with or without 'ActiveX', whatever that may be.

PeterA

Vancouver or RAFMusem examples?

PeterA