and on 6 August 1951 was flown to Stansted for further testing. On 26 August 1951, in preparation for the 1951 SBAC Air Display at Farnborough, the HP.88 carried out a high-speed pass at 300 ft over Stansted, and was seen to start a pitching oscillation before breaking up in mid-air. The "black box" flight recorder subsequently showed pitching accelerations of +/-12g. The cause was traced to a tailplane control system servo instability involving a bob-weight that had been added as a safety measure. The HP.88 had only flown 14 hours in 26 sorties over a lifetime of just 36 days, and had little time to gather useful information, but the loss of the aircraft was of little significance to the V bomber project; two prototype Victors were already nearing completion by the time of the HP.88's first flight. Specifications (HP.88) See also References Notes Bibliography Barnes, C. H. Handley Page Aircraft Since 1907. London: Putnam & Company, Ltd., 1987. . Buttler, Tony and Jean-Louis Delezenne. X-Planes of Europe: Secret Research Aircraft from the Golden Age 1946-1974. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications, 2012. Clayton, Donald C. Handley Page, an Aircraft Album. Shepperton, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan, 1969. . Hygate, B.; British experimental jet aircraft, Argus, 1990, Pages 106-112. Taylor, John W.R. Jane's Pocket Book of Research and Experimental Aircraft, London, Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd, 1976. . 1950s British experimental aircraft HP.088