Hanno

A favourite of mine from long ago when, as a kid, I was holding the Airfix kit box and marveling at the Roy Cross art work. The HP42 has always held a special place for me with its sort of hybrid or missing link looks, a bit like something made up of what had been and what was coming.

G-AAUD, production number 42/3, was named after the Carthaginian explorer "Hanno" the Navigator, who explored the Atlantic coast of Africa in approx. 570 BC. Hanno first flew on 19 July 1931 and was later converted to a H.P.42(W) (Hannibal class). The aircraft was impressed into No. 271 Squadron RAF and was destroyed in a gale at Whitchurch Airport, Bristol when it was blown together with Heracles and damaged beyond repair on 19 March 1940.

The HP42 has been described in some places as the Concorde of its day but with a cruising speed of just 90 - 100MPH depending on the head winds, it perhaps falls short of such a comparison. I think it has a magnificence if not majesty all of its own and is an icon of the golden age of aviation.