Handley Page H.P.46

The Handley Page H.P.46 was a two-seat, single-engined biplane built to Air Ministry specification M.1/30 for a carrier-based torpedo bomber to replace the Blackburn Ripon. The Air Ministry paid for a single prototype, in competition with the Blackburn M.1/30 and the Vickers Type 207, but no manufacturer could meet both the required performance and the weight limit set by the lifts of Royal Navy carriers. Designer Gustav Lachmann gave it an unconventional layout, with a thinned upper centre section for the crew's view, a lower centre section with about 30 degrees of anhedral, a short fixed undercarriage, and a combination of leading edge slots, drooping ailerons and interceptors to allow slow carrier landings. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Buzzard III of 825 horsepower, it first flew on 24 October 1932, but it was overweight and too late for the trials. Handling problems with the ailerons, slots and longitudinal stability persisted, and it made few flights before going to Farnborough in 1935.