Handley Page "Laminar Airliner"

Jemiba

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A HP design from 1954, MTOW 136.000 kg, 120 pax, four Conway 10 engines,
Mach 0,9 in 15.000 to 18.300m, range up to 25.000 km !
That's stated in an article in aero 1954, but without type designation or project number.
 

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Did they honestly think they could get that kind of range out of it?

Is that similar to the "Comet 5" concept?


KJ
 
Dr.D.Kuchemann (Gottingen U, one of UK's Paperclip successes) had moved from RAE to HP: his concept was porous (leading edge, even entire wing) upper surface, with a buried turbine to suck in the draggy boundary layer. Trialled 1957-63 on Marshall MA.4 Auster with David Budworth turbine in cabin, and on an HP aerofoil upper mid-fuse mounted, first at Cranfield on Lancaster PA474 (Yes, that one), then on (Napier) Lincoln RF...Prob: bugs, gunging the holes. Manufacturing/maintenance nightmare. Big-fan powerplants provided range despite drag.
 
That looks quite large. Any dims on it? The wing makes me think of the B-52's for some reason.
 
Length 42,20 m,span 67,05 m, wingloading 293kg/m²
 
Hi,

and from Flightglobal;
http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1957/1957%20-%200910.html
 

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200ft + wingspan, thats quite big....

Also interesting is the use of wing mounted engines rather than buried as in the HP97 and 111C are they on short pylons or directly on the wing?
 
The two artist impression seems to show different kind of engine attachements, I think. The one in
aero seems to have the engines slung directly under the wing, the other from Flight /thanks for this,
hesham !) quite clearly has podded engines. But between them are about 3 years of development,
so maybe we just see an early and a later design (And range has decreased significantly during this
time !).
 
Do Project Cancelled or Stuck on the Drawing Board mention this design?
 
I think not.
I was thinking of the HP.102, but this was a straight-wing design and it
was from 1955 ...
 
The L/D ratio on this plane was something like a glider at it's optimum speed.

Incredible
 
Hi,

 

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From a 1957 Handley Page brochure
 

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Three views of two Laminar Flow projects from the Autumn 1957 Handley Page Bulletin... Project A was designed to cruise at Mach 0.85, Project B (similar to the HP108) at Mach 0.9...

Zeb
 

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Three views of two Laminar Flow projects from the Autumn 1957 Handley Page Bulletin... Project A was designed to cruise at Mach 0.85, Project B (similar to the HP108) at Mach 0.9...

Zeb
Interesting that the design placed the engines in external pods - I thought that during this period, the British aero industry was still committed to wing-root installations. The plumbing necessary for the suction system would seem like another reason to bury the engines internally and the arrangements of the pods on this design doesn't seem to use them to resist wing twist.
 
I'd say it was an attempt to reduce maintenance & other operating costs as well as allowing for a wider range of engine choices.
 
Interesting that the design placed the engines in external pods - I thought that during this period, the British aero industry was still committed to wing-root installations. The plumbing necessary for the suction system would seem like another reason to bury the engines internally and the arrangements of the pods on this design doesn't seem to use them to resist wing twist.

Look at how thin the wing is. Burying the engines in the root may not have been an option.
 
The wings would be full of ducts and pipework.

Chris
 
Indeed, but all through the wing structure and under the skin, the pipes and ducts were for the suction system which was not conducive to access panels, so external engines would be helpful. See Vulcan's Hammer, Nimrod's Genesis and On Atlas' Shoulders.

Chris
 

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