Impressed into No 271 Sqn of the RAF and blown over in a gale on 19 March 1940. Photo from: Life

G-AAUE was blown over in a gale at Doncaster on December 6, 1940. Photo from: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

A well-known photo of Hanno but it completes the eight-aircraft HP.42/HP.45 fleet in the AirHistory database. The lumbering giants could use austere airports such as the old Ottoman airfield at Samakh, although Imperial Airways later moved to Gaza and then to Lydda. Photo from: Library of Congress

Commandeered by the RAF as AS982 in May 1940, but lost a few months later when a gale flipped the big biplane on its back at Doncaster. Photo from: DRISA

The HP.42 certainly made an impression on the imperial airways. Dating uncertain. Photo by: Ernst Ackermann / SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek

Imperial dinosaur at Lydda, the future Ben Gurion Airport. The photographer took another shot from the new control tower. Photo from: Library of Congress

Shot from the incomplete tower at Lydda (Lod), which was becoming an international hub in the late 1930s. Photo from: Library of Congress

The prototype of the HP-42/HP-45. The HP-42 model, called HP-42E by Imperial Airways, was intended for services to India and South Africa and the fleet was based in Cairo. Here Hannibal is seen in Switzerland though, probably during initial testing. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich