Fairey Hendon

The Fairey Hendon was a British twin-engined heavy night bomber designed by the Fairey Aviation Company to Air Ministry Specification B.19/27, which sought a replacement for the Vickers Virginia. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage, a steel tube fuselage with fabric covering, a crew of five including gunners in open nose, dorsal and tail positions, and bombs carried in cells in the fuselage and centre section. It was the first all-metal low-wing monoplane to enter service with the Royal Air Force. The prototype first flew on 25 November 1930 with Bristol Jupiter radial engines, crashed in March 1931 and was rebuilt with Rolls-Royce Kestrel engines. Fourteen production Hendon Mk.II aircraft were built at Stockport in 1936 and 1937, orders for sixty more were cancelled, and the type served with a single RAF squadron between 1936 and 1939.