Westland Whirlwind

[Soulyss]

Thank you Karnak. So given two separate throttles you can work each engine completely separately, engine off and on and WEP and so on simultaneously?

I use the CH throttle and it has three buttons on the front (top) of the gripe that are easy to reach with the index, middle, and ring fingers.  I have the left button mapped to Select Engine 1, the middle to Select All, and the right to Select Engine 2 and with a little practice you can manipulate both engines fairly easily.  It's actually not the useful in a fight, and only comes in handy in a couple specific situations and if you screw it up you're likely to end up in trouble.  In most cases the loss in thrust from cutting one engine isn't worth the increase in roll (speaking of 38 flying here).

[nrshida]

Does it at least help with wingovers Soulyss? You P-38 lot have contra-rotating props though, aren't I right in thinking that they both turn outwards? Reading about twins doesn't that kind of make both engines the critical one in the case of failure?

Are there any Mosquito specialists that use a dual throttle?

[JUGgler]

Does it at least help with wingovers Soulyss? You P-38 lot have contra-rotating props though, aren't I right in thinking that they both turn outwards? Reading about twins doesn't that kind of make both engines the critical one in the case of failure?

Are there any Mosquito specialists that use a dual throttle?

I actually use independant throttle control from time to time in the 110 and boston, mostly for stall recovery but it can also help with extreme "yaw" inputs when that "exreme yaw" is required, usually this induces the stall for which I can use indepentent control to recover from, it's kind of like a meri-go-round  



In the end "independent control" is an option single engine planes do not have, albeit very difficult to gain bennefit from !

Yes it can help with "wingovers"  be gentle though young samuri  



JUGgler

[Reaper90]

Looks like a Mossie and a Hurri IIc had a kid. 

I can't help but to look at that bird and think she would be an awesome little ride. A little slow but by all accounts she was a wonderful thing to fly.

  HiTech 

[Krusty]

I have a throttle quadrant. I use 2 throttles for all twin-engine planes. Using it for turns and special manuvers does almost nothing. It's so insignificant it will not win nor lose a fight.

However it is greatly immersive, and IMO fun. When you fly some of those twins that have terrible tail slide stalls, it is one of the only ways to get out of spins. Example: 110 flap spins can be disrupted into normal spins with differential throttle controls. Then you can recover from the spin in the normal manner.

Outside of that it doesn't make you turn tighter or anything. The only example I can think of, and this is somewhat rare, is the perfect vertical hammerhead. Even then if you can pull this off ("if") it can still cause other problems. It's no magic bullet or anything.

[nrshida]

Thanks for those great pictures Reaper. That completes the inflight set I believe. Might add the ground-based ones later, loading up with bombs and cannon. Some pictures of the crews.

I found this on YouTube. The guy is apparently trying to make a documentary on the Whirlwind. Not sure he's got very far but there is some nice footage in his trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6idJ3tF00Og

Thanks JUGgler and Krusty for the dual throttle information. I think it potentially adds another dimension and immersion as Krusty said. I'd be very interested to see what you could do at the edges since the Whirlwind was apparently so docile at the stall.

I reckon Reaper is right, the Whirlwind would be endless fun. Interesting gun package, superb visibility, those enormous flaps and an extra dimension with the twin engines. Sure it's slow by LW standards, we'll just have to stick around and fight then. 

What an epic wishlist thread! Almost totally positive comments.

  HiTech

[Reaper90]

I've seen some numbers posted concerning climg rate and speed, anyone have any data on other performance? Turn rate and radius, roll rate, etc?

[nrshida]

I believe I have now rung out the internet like a sponge and found the following remaining resources. I think those with extensive printed libraries must now take over.



The first article has some data about power outputs on 87 octane fuel and some performance figures at various altitudes:-













Alas no data regarding roll rates and turning etcetera. I can't find any flight test reports, it's mostly anecdotal stuff regarding excellent flight characteristics and docility of handling. Moyes article also makes some comment about this.

This second scanned article explains the slats where 'eventually' wired shut because they suspected at least one aircraft had been lost due to slat failure. Thus they did fly with manual slats operational at first at least and were modified in the field later:-











I found these pictures of the cockpit (apologies for small size and quality):-









And these miscellaneous photographs:-
















Best of all I found this bit of British Pathe footage which includes some nice detailed shots, the loading and dropping of bombs and some low-level flying and nice flypasts when rtb. You can even hear the engine sounds here and there. It's a wmv file (40mb):-

[STEELE]

Looks a heck of a lot like a Gloster Meteor!

[nrshida]

I found a few more images for those who are interested.
































I have also some parts of blueprints with aerofoil sections, spars and so on. Also a few details like the control rods for the manual slats etc. There are also two more videos of original footage, surely the last of those.

[JOACH1M]

I found a few more images for those who are interested.


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I have also some parts of blueprints with aerofoil sections, spars and so on. Also a few details like the control rods for the manual slats etc. There are also two more videos of original footage, surely the last of those.

The 3rd photo looks like there hispano 20mm 

[nrshida]

The 3rd photo looks like there hispano 20mm  

  On no account look down the end of those tubes Jo, you might get something in your eye  


Was a little tricky to get a copy of this film, but here it is. At 40 seconds you can see the enormous Fowler flap in operation, plus the radiator flap working in conjunction. Some taxiing, and a takeoff and a grass strip landing, plus some detail shots.

[RTHolmes]

nice film

landing speed looked very high in that film

[nrshida]

They did say the landing speed with the Whirlwind was a little high, but that comment was relative to its peers of course including the Hurricane Mark I and Spitfire Mark I.

I saw that he had his flap fully deployed which I think explained the nose low approach which yes did look a bit fast. He seemed to slow down quickly on the flare. Could you hazard a guess at the touchdown speed?

I also discovered that the prototype had contra-rotating props which was dropped from the production version, even through the handing of the Peregrine could be easily reversed. You can see this on the handed props of L6844 in an earlier posted photo. Interesting that they dropped it, eh P-38 pilots? 

[Karnak]

It is too bad the Whirlwind was designed with Peregrines instead of Merlins.