page_title: Handley Page Halifax
section_title: Civilian operation
hierarchical_section_title: Handley Page Halifax / Operational service / Civilian operation
caption_attribution_description: English: Handley Page Halifax C.VIII G-AKEC of Lancashire Aircraft Corporation at Manchester (Ringway) Airport on February 1950
context_page_description: The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.
  The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine HP56 proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which would be built and operated by the RAF and several other services during the War.
  On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the RAF on 13 November 1940.
context_section_description: A number of former RAF Halifax C.8s were sold from 1945 and used as freighters by a number of mostly British airlines. In 1948, 41 civil Halifax freighters were used during the Berlin Air Lift, operating a total of 4,653 sorties carrying freight and 3,509 carrying bulk diesel fuel. Nine aircraft were lost during the airlift. The Low-cost airline business pioneer Freddie Laker bought and serviced war-surplus Halifaxes for Bond Air Services operations in the Berlin airlift.
  With the airfreight market in decline, most of the civilian Halifaxes were scrapped on their return to England. The last civilian-operated Halifaxes were withdrawn from service in late 1952.
caption: Halifax C.8 freighter of Lancashire Aircraft Corporation at Manchester Airport in 1950
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