WI/PC Improve the HANDLEY-PAGE Herald.

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
With only 50 or so sales, the Handley-Page Herald was one of the UK's aerospace "what ifs" especially as the AVRO 748 (sold 380) and Fokker/Fairchild F-27/FH-227 (720 plus sold) sold the best part of a 1,000 aircraft between them.

With a post 1950's pod, improve or alter the Herald so it would sell around 300 aircraft.

Regards filers.
 
I'm really not sure if that's possible without a much earlier POD. The fundamental problem is that the Avro 730 and the Fokker Friendship were both twin turboprop aircraft, while the Herald was a scaled up version of the (4-engined) Miles Marathon. That gave it great performance - particularly once rebuilt with turboprops - but is always going to make it more expensive to run than a twin. In theory they could have redesigned it as a twin turboprop from the start, but the 4 engine design was pretty baked in by that stage and its going to be tough to get around that.
 
I'm really not sure if that's possible without a much earlier POD. The fundamental problem is that the Avro 730 and the Fokker Friendship were both twin turboprop aircraft, while the Herald was a scaled up version of the (4-engined) Miles Marathon. That gave it great performance - particularly once rebuilt with turboprops - but is always going to make it more expensive to run than a twin. In theory they could have redesigned it as a twin turboprop from the start, but the 4 engine design was pretty baked in by that stage and its going to be tough to get around that.

The Avro 730 was not a transport.

As to the thread, it's simple and complex. Handley Page didn't go for twin Darts when he should have, and that costed. The Herald was much much nicer to fly than the Fokker, but was slower and more expensive to fly. Airlines listen to bean counters, not pilots. Salesmen might have something to do with it as well.
 
The Avro 730 was not a transport.
Apologies, I meant 748 - unfortunately I've been up since 2.30 am when my cat started noisily trying (and failing) to kill a mouse under my bed and I had to get up to evict the rodent - the cat very nearly following it out of the window!
 

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
The Avro 730 was not a transport.

As to the thread, it's simple and complex. Handley Page didn't go for twin Darts when he should have, and that costed. The Herald was much much nicer to fly than the Fokker, but was slower and more expensive to fly. Airlines listen to bean counters, not pilots. Salesmen might have something to do with it as well.

If the Herald could have been designed from the outset as a twin engine aircraft, how would it perform against the AVRO & Fokker aircraft?

What sales would you be looking at?

Regards filers
 
If the Herald could have been designed from the outset as a twin engine aircraft, how would it perform against the AVRO & Fokker aircraft?

What sales would you be looking at?

There's far too many variables, and guesswork. The De Havilland Canada Dash-8 was a marvel and yet DHC is historical. I still can't get over how life works.
 
Top