The Westland Whirlwind

[Lephturn]

I'm currently reading a book about Canadian WWII pilots called "Flying Under Fire".  http://www.aviationworld.net/products/details.asp?pid=994

There is one bit I'm reading in there about the Westland Whirlwind.  It looks very interesting.  I just wondered if you guys had any more performance info about it.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/BARC/whirlwind.html

This would be an interesting bird to fly.  Mondo firepower too.

[Ripsnort]

I love that warbirdsresource website!

[Ripsnort]

Hey Leph, if you like russian stuff, here's a good link that has various links to russian stuff:

http://www.wargaming.net/tanks/ussr_links.htm

[Karnak]

Whirlwind F.Mk I

Engines: 2 x 885hp Rolls-Royce Peregrin I engines
Maximum Speed: 360mph
Time to 20,000ft: 8.6 minutes
Armament: 4 20mm Hispano Mk I cannon with 60 rounds per gun


The Whirlwind suffered from the extreme unreliability of its engines.  It probably would have seen service through the entire war had it been designed for Merlins instead of Peregrins, but by the time that mistake was realized it would have taken a complete redesign to put Merlins on it.  By that time the Spitfire was showing its huge potential and things like the Mosquito were on the way.  The Whirlwind order was canceled before it was fully delivered.  Those that were delivered saw service in the BoB and as fighter-bombers over France in 1941.

[Tony Williams]

The Whirlwind was also handicapped by the fact that Westland was not experienced in building this class of aircraft, and it was really too advanced for them. They took far too long over it

With a bit more luck, it could have been ready for the BoB, and then it would have been the bomber destroyer from Hell...but by the time it arrived, it wasn't really needed.

Incidentally, the picture on that website showing the "37mm gun" is I believe mislabelled. I spent last Saturday in the PRO and was browsing through a file on the installation of large calibre guns to WW2 aircraft. There was much correspondence about fitting the Whirlwind with a 40mm gun, initially the Rolls-Royce BH but later the Vickers Class S, and an order for a conversion for the Vickers was placed. There was no mention of a 37mm gun (and the only British one around was that ancient COW gun anyway) so I presume the picture shows the Vickers 40mm.

Tony Williams
Author: "Rapid Fire: The development of automatic cannon, heavy machine guns and their ammunition for armies, navies and air forces"
Details on my military gun and ammunition website:
http://website.lineone.net/~a_g_williams/
Military gun and ammunition discussion forum:
http://www.delphi.com/autogun/messages

[Tac]

Id love this bird in AH. Its the brit P-38.

And 60 rpg.. its basically a tiffie with 2 engines but with the speed of a spitV


And its PURRTYYY!!!

[Karnak]

Tac,

Does your squad focus on anything with two engines?

(I thought the Mossie was the British P-38)

[HoHun]

Hi everyone,

More info on the Whirlwind:

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27729&highlight=whirlwind

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[HoHun]

Hi  Tony,

>The Whirlwind was also handicapped by the fact that Westland was not experienced in building this class of aircraft, and it was really too advanced for them. They took far too long over it

To be fair, at that time the entire British aircraft industry was building aircraft in a class beyond their experience, and took far too long over it, too :-)

Hawkers were an exception - but only by using obsolescent technology to deliver on time.

The British gouvernment just couldn't push their aviation industry as hard as the German could push theirs. Only a dictatorship could afford to spend the vast amounts of money into aviation - with no immediate benefit - that were spent by the German gouvernment throughout the 1930s to catch up with and overtake the technology of the western powers.

Building aircraft beyond one's experience of course typifies leading edge technology, so it was just the right thing to do for the British industry when the growing threat of war finally released the necessary funds.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Tac]

"Tac,

Does your squad focus on anything with two engines?

(I thought the Mossie was the British P-38)"

We fly twins . What else is there to say?

Ah, if only in real life... blue eyed..

ermm... P38 rocks!

[GRUNHERZ]

Niki has two engines? I thought they took the gravity drive out?

[Lephturn]

The book I referenced above has a chapter that is taken from a pilot's recollections supported by his log book.  He was flying the Whirlwinds as fighter-bombers into August of 1943, FYI.

One interesting bit I noticed is that they were using the Whirlwinds as bomber bait for the LW to get them to come up and play.  They Whirlwinds would come in and drop a couple 500 lb bombs by dive-bombing, then bug out at high speed.  The LW would come up to intercept the "twin engined bombers" and then a couple of squads of Spits would arrive to eat them up.

I would be very interested to see the sea-level speed of the Whirwind.  In the book the author subjectively compares it to the Mossie as well, and in his opinion (for what that's worth) he found the Whirlwind to be more aerobatic though not as fast.

If I get time, I'll try to quote a couple of passages here for you guys.

I think this would be a very interesting and different plane for the early war period.  I want something different than the normal Hurri's and Spits.

[Seeker]

I would so love to see this bird in AH........

[Replicant]

Just some useless infomation, the Whirlwind only operated with one RAF squadron - 263 Sqn, which is the same squadron as our very own AH Typhoon!     Bring it on!

BTW  The Whirlwind was withdrawn from service in November 1943.

Regards

Nexx