Handley Page W.9a Hampstead

Handley Page · United Kingdom · first flew 1926 · airliner

The Handley Page W.9a Hampstead was a refined, slightly enlarged development of the W.8 trimotor airliner, offering improved capacity and performance for Imperial Airways services in the late 1920s.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, straight
E — Engines	3 × piston, wing-mounted
F — Fuselage	Broader chord wings and more capacious fuselage than W.8
T — Tail	Conventional

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Spot it by:

Enlarged W.8 derivative with three Rolls-Royce Eagle engines
Broader chord wings and more capacious fuselage than W.8
Open flight deck with enclosed 14-seat passenger cabin

Slightly larger than the W.8 variants with a more capacious fuselage; the three-engine trimotor biplane layout with open cockpit forward of the cabin is shared with earlier W.8 types.

Specifications

The Handley Page W.9a Hampstead has a length of 18.29 m (60 ft).
It has a wingspan of 24.38 m (80 ft).
Its maximum speed is 177 km/h (110 mph).
Typical crew: 2.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Designed to carry more passengers than the W.8 series, the Hampstead entered Imperial Airways service in 1926 on London–Paris and other European routes. Only a handful were built before the HP.42 era superseded biplane airliners.

Variants

The W.9a was the single production variant; it represented the culmination of the W.8 lineage before Handley Page moved to more advanced designs.

Where you'll see it

Operated by Imperial Airways on European routes in the late 1920s; retired as the airline moved to more modern equipment in the early 1930s.

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