Handley Page Hare

The Handley Page HP.34 Hare was a British two-seat high-altitude day bomber designed by Harold Boultbee at Cricklewood to meet Air Ministry Specification 23/25, which sought a replacement for the Hawker Horsley. It competed against the Blackburn Beagle, Hawker Harrier, Gloster Goring and Westland Witch. The Hare was a conventional biplane of mixed wood and metal construction with single-bay unequal-span staggered wings and a crew of two. Only one was built, serial J8622, and it first flew on 24 February 1928 with a Gnome-Rhône Jupiter engine because the planned Jupiter VIII was unavailable. Handling problems led to a longer fuselage and a revised tail. It lost both the day bomber and torpedo bomber competitions, served the Royal Air Force as a trials aircraft until 1932, was sold as G-ACEL for a proposed long-distance flight but never flew again, and was scrapped in 1937.