Handley Page Type O

In December 1914 during the Great war the Royal Navy Director of the Air Department Captain Murray Sueter requested a long range bomber to be built by Frederick Handley Page. Handley Page responded to the Navy's requirements with a biplane with a wingspan of 100 ft/30 m The first prototype Handley Page 400 flew on 7th December 1915 and featured a glazed cockpit and armour sufficient to protect from rifle fire around the crew compartment and engines. The aircraft proved somewhat underpowered, so the glazing and armour were deleted on the second prototype that flew the following April and formed the basis for series production of the machine. For so large a machine, production of the Handley Page 0/400 was considerable with over 400 examples being delivered by the time of the Armistice in 1918. Its first missions were carried out during April of that year, operating both during daylight and by night.