The Last Great Biplane Airliner: Handley Page’s Masterpiece, The Flying Hotel. The Handley Page H.P. 42 represents the absolute pinnacle of luxury biplane travel in the 1930s, a machine that prioritized comfort and safety above sheer speed. In an era where aviation was still transitioning from the open cockpits of the 1920s to the streamlined monoplanes of the future, the H.P. 42 stood out as a "solid, stately shape" that redefined what it meant to fly. It marked the moment when the "trilby and