Handley Page Halifax Wireless Operators Chair


An original wireless operators seat from a Handley Page Halifax bomber for use at a desk or as an occasional chair Or as a piece of memorabilia.

This chair was made by Rumbolds and was used in a London Aircraft Company manufactured Handley Page Halifax aircraft. There is an LAC stamp visible on the main shaft and on the data plate.

The Halifax was the second most widely used heavy bomber by the RAF ( after the Lancaster) and was crewed with RAF, RCAF, RAAF and RNZAF aircrew as well as crew serving from other countries.

This is specifically the wireless operators chair that was positioned just below the pilots seat in the aircraft.

The position between the bulkhead and the radio equipment was tight and so the seat had to swivel.

As can be seen in the beige drawing from a wartime Halifax user manual the aircraft the seat was bolted to the cabin floor.

The seat in later aircraft had an arm on the LHS and on post war Hastings aircraft it had an additional headrest. Hence this is a wartime item.

The seat was originally painted in black or in green and can be in either black leather or green leather.

The seat cushion had a matching leather cover over the frame.

We have found a couple of these seats over the years - usually painted white in the 60's/70's and with seized white metal bearings so they don't swivel. The thin aluminium data plate is usually damaged or unreadable.


The picture of the white seat is as this seat came to us.

We have completely stripped the seat back to metal.

We have removed and cleaned the upper and lower white metal bearings and made them work again with new copper grease.

We have repainted the seat frame in matt black paint and also top coated it with a hard matt acrylic coating.

We have mounted it on a block of black walnut hardwood using stainless steel bolts, curved washers and domed nuts.

The original data plate is still present and at the top has a 57 part number that is specific to the Halifax.

We have made a new cushion from modern upholstery foam and covered it in dark blue leather. (We have not added the frame cover as we considered that it detracts from the structure. )

The result is a very usable aircrew seat from a WW2 aircraft.

The seat is 48 cm wide, 53 cm deep and 79 cm high. The seat cushion is 48 cm from the floor.

The base of the wood has felt protectors.

The chair itself is very lightweight as it is made from light aluminium tubing.