what is it?
The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers, intended to bomb Berlin from East Anglian airfields. The end of the war stopped the V/1500 being used against Germany.
How to recognise it: 4 piston engines with propellers · 38.4 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 108 years ago, in 1918.
- Wingspan of 38.4 m: about 9 cars parked nose to tail.
- Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 2 African elephants (~6 t each).
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1918-05-22
- introduced
- 1918
- number built
- 63
- role
- heavy bomber
- makers
- Handley Page
- engines
- 4× Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII
- crew
- 8
- length
- 19.5 m
- wingspan
- 38.4 m
- height
- 7 m
- max take-off weight
- 13.6 t
- top speed
- 166 km/h
- range
- —
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q1575061, Wikipedia: Handley Page V/1500 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.