Handley Page Type O

Type O
Role	Heavy bomber Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Handley Page Aircraft Company
First flight	17 December 1915
Introduction	1916
Retired	1922
Primary users	Royal Air Force Royal Naval Air Service
Produced	1915-1919
Number built	600
Developed into	Handley Page Type W

The Handley Page Type O was a biplane bomber used by Britain during the First World War. When built, the Type O was the largest aircraft that had been built in the UK and one of the largest in the world. There were two main variants, the Handley Page O/100 (H.P.11) and the Handley Page O/400 (H.P.12).

The aircraft were used in France for tactical night attacks on targets in German-occupied France and Belgium and for strategic bombing of industrial and transport targets in the Rhineland. Some aircraft were temporarily diverted to anti-submarine reconnaissance and bombing in the Tees estuary in 1917 and two aircraft operated in the eastern Mediterranean. The Type O made such an impression that for many years after the war any large aircraft in Britain was referred to as a "Handley Page", even getting a dictionary entry.^[1]