Even in the initial months of the Phoney War, keeping a secret as big as a prototype bomber was a tall order. Yet 85 years ago today, 25 October 1939, the Handley Page Halifax was wheeled out of Hangar 108 and took flight for the very first time unbeknown to the world.
The plane itself was no surprise: it had been in development for almost three years. The initial requirements from the Government were for it to be built with four vast Rolls-Royce Vulture engines, only for teething issues to force Handley Page to change to the venerable Merlin. Avro persevered and eventually landed on the Vulture-powered Manchester.
Though the Halifax would have shared night skies above the Channel and mainland Europe with Bicester’s own, the Blenheim, there is an irony in that it would have played a role in making the light bomber redundant from an offensive point of view. The Halifax could fly farther than any Blenheim, faster, with a far bigger load. That it used the Blenheim’s home to announce its arrival was a cruel twist of fate.
The Halifax was built in Handley Page’s Cricklewood factory, a couple of miles from the former home of Bentley, and despite the scene of its maiden flight, the prototype was no exception. It arrived at RAF Bicester from North London in pieces, maintaining the secrecy, and was put together inside the hangar.
Locals had got wind of something, but not everything, and the elusive bomber took to the skies in the middle of the day with Handley Page’s lead test pilot Major James Cordes at the helm. A veteran of WW1, he had switched his attention to the skies when he was injured in Greece. Remarkably, the Halifax was the fourth plane he’d taken on a maiden flight following the Heyford, Hampden and Harrow.
It wasn’t without drama. The brakes were put on, literally, when Major Cordes was unhappy with the Lockheed hydraulics to the point that he reportedly insisted Dunlops were used instead. Frederick Handley Page stormed up to Bicester, beaten by his designer, and three days were lost to the refitment.
Satisfied with the results of the testing, Major Cordes flew to Boscombe Down to continue the prototype’s testing. The Ministry’s second prototype didn’t fly for almost another year but the finished plane entered service a year after that initial Bicester excursion.
In 1941, a Halifax landed the first British bomb on Germany during the terrifying raids on Hamburg and later developments flitted between Merlin and Hercules engines as it saw out most of the war. Its load often varied from bombs and mines to troops of the Special Operations Executive, and Bomber Command sent more than 6000 Halifaxes on more than 75,000 sorties in its four years at the forefront.
Only one ever flew from RAF Bicester, though; it was perhaps the most important of all.