Warbird Information Exchange

The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine HP56 proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which would be built and operated by the RAF and several other services during the War.

On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the RAF on 13 November 1940. It quickly became a major component of Bomber Command, performing routine strategic bombing missions against the Axis Powers, many of them at night. Arthur Harris, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described the Halifax as inferior to the rival Lancaster (in part due to its smaller payload) though this opinion was not shared by many of the crews that flew it, particularly for the MkIII variant. Nevertheless, production of the Halifax continued until April 1945. During their service with Bomber Command, Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs, while 1,833 aircraft were lost. The Halifax was also flown in large numbers by other Allied and Commonwealth nations, such as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Free French Air Force and Polish forces.

Various improved versions of the Halifax were introduced, incorporating more powerful engines, a revised defensive turret layout and increased payload. It remained in service with Bomber Command until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing. Additionally, specialised versions of the Halifax were developed for troop transport and paradrop operations. Following the end of the Second World War, the RAF quickly phased the Halifax out of service, after the type was succeeded in the strategic bombing role by the Avro Lincoln, an advanced derivative of the Lancaster. During the post-war years, the Halifax was operated by the Royal Egyptian Air Force, the French Air Force and the Royal Pakistan Air Force. The type also entered commercial service for a number of years, used mainly as a freighter. A dedicated civil transport variant, the Handley Page Halton, was also developed and entered airline service. 41 civil Halifax freighters were used during the Berlin Airlift. In 1961, the last remaining Halifax bombers were retired from operational use.

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English Electric Halifax Bomber assembly plant, Strand Road. Preston 1941.


Halifax Bomber Production at the Strand Road, West Works, Preston. Sept 1941.


Halifax Production at English Electrics Samlesbury works and airfield July 1944.


English Electric Halifax Aircraft Assembly, Samlesbury Aerodrome 1942-43.


Halifax production at Samlesbury.


Handley Page Halifax bombers under construction at Samlesbury.












Handley-Page Halifax was photographed “at an RCAF Bomber station somewhere in England”.


A crew of No. 502 Squadron RAF walk to their aircraft past Handley Page Halifax at Stornoway, Outer Hebrides.


Halifax B Mk. III bomber, nicknamed 'Gutsy Girty', from No. 427 Squadron, shown at Leeming, Yorkshire, with its crew before a night operation.


Gliders and tugs at RAF Tarrant Rushton.




Halifax taking off towing a Horsa glider.


Halifax towing Hamilcar glider


The King, Queen and Chiefs of Staff inspect 295 and 296 Squadron Halifax and Albemarle crews.

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45+47=Psalm 92:6

A very interesting thread with a great range of piccies showing a number of different variants and roles.

The basic story of the Halifax is that the early to mid-range Merlin Mk's weren't great, to put it mildly. It wasn't the Merlin itself that was the trouble, it's just the term that's often used to differentiate between the early rotten tomato versions and the later Hercules powered ones, which were much better. To list the Merlin Hali's problems...

1) Biggest problem was the triangular fin/rudder design, namely that the area of fixed fin was too small compared to the rudder and many Hali's were lost as a result of rudder hard-overs. Recovery was very tricky even in broad daylight, and at night, well... It also made it difficult to fly with an engine out of action.

2) Engine nacelle/radiator design was draggy and not too efficient, there were a number of tweaked cowl designs, especially on version used in Coastal Command.

3) Exhaust glare. The Merlin Hali's never had a good, discrete design of flame damper exhaust and they were always visible from much further away than other types. This was vital as the last stages of nightfighter intercepts were carried out visually with the radar switched off (if it were on while too close, it could have feedback effects and cook), and on some occasions the fighter crew had trouble picking up a target visually and the bomber would get away with it. Not so the Merlin Hali's, who were usually pretty easy to see from a distance and were rarely visually lost.

4) Prop vibration. This was due to the inner and outer prop tips being too close together and causing the vortices coming off the inner props to cause problems on the outers. Took a good while to solve the problem, the solution being the four-blade props which reduced the diameter. In some rare pics, you'll see Hali's with four blade inners and three blade outers as an interim measure until there were enough four blade prop units available. While prop vibration sounds like an annoyance, it was more serious than that as it had an effect on the reliability of some of the onboard equipment like the radios and navigation instruments.

5) The overall design of the earliest layouts was very draggy, nose turret, bulbous mid-upper turret and fuel dump pipes under the wings all adding to drag. The wing itself needed to have a higher aspect ratio, which it eventually got with the tip extensions seen in the July 1944 factory pic above. They had the Herc engines by then too, and some were Mk.VI's with the Hercules 100 engine which had a much better supercharger design. Many have said that these Mk.VI's were easily better than the Lanc, with higher ceiling and higher cruise speed and longer range.

From an operational effectiveness point of view, it is telling that there was a Bomber Command internal investigation into Halifax losses in the mid-war period. The report concluded that crews had a "lack of confidence in manoeuvre", but in stiff upper lip tradition didn't say why exactly. In essence, crews were frightened of losing control of the aircraft and weren't performing hard enough evasive moves to shake off searchlights or fighter attacks, due to those triangle fins.

Whilst the Hali and Lanc could carry similar maximum bombloads, it was a serious operational consideration that the Hali's range suffered more severely the more heavily it was loaded, so the Lanc always had a better Range/Payload capability.

Ask many Bomber Command boffins which bomber suffered the worse loss rates and many will say the Stirling. In fact for much of the time that Merlin Hali's and Stirlings were in service side by side, it was the Hali squadrons that suffered the worst losses.

The situation got so bad that when the Herc powered Mk.III's came into service in numbers, it was decided to relegate the remaining Merlin Hali squadrons to mine-laying sorties and only shallow penetration bombing raids (ie targets in coastal areas). This was to reduce losses and tide the squadrons over until they could all be Mk.III equipped and go back to normal ops.

So, which was better, the Hali or the Lanc? It depends which version, but in essence the Lanc always did what it said on the tin and never had any nasty surprises or serious flaws/ineffeciencies.

Sorry for the rather long post, the Hali story is a complex one and explaining it illustrates just what the crews were up against. sometimes it was their own aircraft as much as the enemy.

Nice write up.Always thought it was the lack of height compared to the Lanc that made it susceptible to Flak and Nightfighter attacks.

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If the CO ask,s you to be Tail End Charlie...Just Shoot Him..A Piece of Cake

Any reason why the Hercules fitted Mk's have a port exhaust on engine #1 and a starboard exhaust on engines #2, #3 & #4?

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45-47=-2

Thanks Mark

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Hi mike furline,

The exhaust arrangement on the Herc Hali's was to avoid the fuel dump vents under the wings, avoiding any possibility of hot exhaust gases igniting fuel as it was dumped.

Spitty,

You're right about the height problem, sorry I should have been clearer in my post above. The wing aspect ratio and the general "draginess" I mentioned lead to poor performance at altitude and a struggle for height, although ceiling was better than the Stirling. All in all, there was a cocktail of poor design features that led to the high loss rates.

Seems like a lot of basic aerodynamic design related issues for a type that new (ff. 1939).

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

I was in Nanton, Alberta yesterday and a couple of guys there said they were recovering a Halifax from Sweden(?) and plan to rebuild it for their museum, to display alongside their Lanc. Has anyone else heard this?

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

Covered at the end of this podcast interview with Karl Kjarsgaard
http://cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZSho ... jarsgaard/

"...
And now his current project is to recover Halifax HR871 from the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden. The plan is for this aircraft to end up fully restored to taxiing (though not flying) condition at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, at Nanton, Alberta. Work is already well underway on a centre section and a collection of Bristol Hercules engines for this aeroplane."

Been talk for a while now, but not a lot of media coverage. There is a website about the project... but there doesnt seem to have been much posted after 2015

http://www.57rescuecanada.com/

Sean