Westland Whirlwind

[Gully]

Whilst wandering through Hobbycraft yesterday, I broke away from the girlie group investigating buttons and beads and stumbled across their model section. Good to see the huge Vulcan, TSR2 and Nimrod kits available, but my attention was drawn by the small Airfix Westland Whirlwind kit. Seeing the name, I was expecting a picture of a helicopter, but was taken aback by the twin engined monoplane that reminded me a little of the Mosquito.

Done a bit of digging and the Wiki page (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Whirlwind_(fighter)) is quite good, but does anyone out there know any more about this somewhat short-lived aircraft that appears to have had reasonable potential, but was let down by its powerplants?

Thanks,

Gully

PS. The absence of survivors explains why I've not happened upon one in a museum!

[RLN]

Stevenage Hobbycraft Didn't know there was a plane of that name. Interesting.

[Cluny]

Yeah I made that kit a few years ago .
Dont know much about the aircraft other than a couple got shot down off Noirmont Point in Jersey in 42 , I think I have a pic of the memorial somewhere
Edit .

[Mayfly]

I read a thread on one of the fora the other about this Whirlwind - but I can't find it now

PS Cluny why are you hiding form Kev?

[Cluny]

I read a thread on one of thr fora the other about this Whirlwind - but I can't find it now

PS Cluny why are you hiding form Kev?

Ask Gully for full details but basically a vid of mine got him in trouble

[P.eames]

Surely his actions got him into trouble? if he hadn't of done what he did then you wouldn't have videoed him doing it therefore he wouldn't have got into trouble.

[Dan4th]

Gully's been in trouble before, and he'll
surely be in trouble again in the future.....

I'd just like to know what this is all about!

Danf.

[Gully]

Gully's been in trouble before, and he'll
surely be in trouble again in the future.....

I'd just like to know what this is all about!

Danf.

Just to clarify - there's some footage on Youtube that Kev's not enamoured with: he was talking about it at the Club Christmas Party. Just so happens it's one of Cluny's vids. My only involvement is that I happen to know the story!

Gully

[P.eames]

Which of course you're not gong to share with us.

[Cluny]

Which of course you're not gong to share with us.

Im sorry for derailing your thread Gully

[Gully]

Im sorry for derailing your thread Gully

No problem - this is IA after all

Just wish all these posts could tell me a bit more about the Whirlwind...

Gully

[P.eames]

Nicked from elswhere....

The Westland Whirlwind was the first single seat twin engine fighter deployed by the English RAF. Its initial missions were slated to be for use as a night fighter, long range bomber escort, and eventually as a fighter bomber.

The aircraft was produced with a number of innovations. A bubble canopy provided excellent visibility from the cockpit, and its four 20 mm cannons provided excellent armament.

The Westland Whirlwind is probably best remembered as the escort fighter protecting heavy bombers on raids on Cologne, Germany in August of 1941.

The fighter seemed to do well at lower altitudes and in the low level ground attack role, using its cannons to maximum advantage.

Unfortunately, it lacked performance at higher altitudes and had numerous engine problems. A relatively high landing speed of about 80 mph limited use of the Westland Whirlwind to longer runways. While originally intended as a long range bomber escort, the aircraft actually had a relatively short combat radius of about 350 miles when fully loaded with ammunition and bombs.

The Westland Whirlwind started being removed from front line service in December of 1943 and was retired in June of 1944. A total of 116 aircraft were produced.

[Air]

Which of course you're not gong to share with us.

Im sorry for derailing your thread Gully

I'd say it was that rather frightening 'snaking' movement across the runaway just before take-off!

I can see why he'd be none too pleased at that being shown to the world on youtoob!

Im sorry for derailing your thread 'again' Gully.

[Dan4th]

That's still a lovely piece of video!

What do you think? Maybe a grabbing
brake or something on takeoff?

Even so, not Kevin's fault or anything....

Danf.

[Mayfly]

Bear in mind these guys are usually busy flying other a/c most of the time. Their hours on 558 are limited in the extreme - How many of us jump into a differant car and put the wipers on instead of the indicators?

To the best of my knowledge there was no damage done & it would be used in a debrief, thats whats debriefs are all about!!

[Air]

What do you think? Maybe a grabbing
brake or something on takeoff?

Even so, not Kevin's fault or anything....

Not looking to have a go at the pilots here, but surely unless it's a mechanical failure of some kind, then it IS Kev's fault. He's the Captain, and in control when the aircraft is rolling after all.

Bear in mind these guys are usually busy flying other a/c most of the time. Their hours on 558 are limited in the extreme - How many of us jump into a differant car and put the wipers on instead of the indicators

That seems a bad analogy to me. After all, you can jump into most cars and the wheel and pedals are in the same place, which means you can drive it the same as any other. Sure other bits are in different places, but the core items used to drive are the same.
I'd imagine the Vulcan is laid out relatively the same with a yoke/stick, throttles and rudder pedals in similar positions to commercial aircraft for example?
Perhaps it could just be down to how the aircraft handles and responds to inputs not only in the air, but on the ground as well which may be the cause of the 'snaking' across the runway.
Lots of rudder use on that clip, could that be anything to do with it?

[P.eames]

You're a brave man for suggesting Mr rumans did wrong! i put it down to cross wind myself, what exactly happend then?

[Mayfly]

Perhaps it was a bad anology - the point I was trying to make is that whatever we do in life there are times when things go wrong or not as expected or we simply make an error! No-one is perfect all the time.

[Air]

You're a brave man for suggesting Mr rumans did wrong! i put it down to cross wind myself, what exactly happend then?

All I'm suggesting is that unless there was some sort of mechanical problem, then the cause of the snaking movement was probably due to some input from the Captain, which is why I thought Danny's 'Not kevs fault' statement was wrong.

No doubt Kev is an excellent pilot and as Mayfly says, nobodies perfect, it was just something that happened and I'm sure they probably learned something that day.

For all I know it might have been perfectly safe, but you probably wouldn't want 70,000 punters at RIAT seeing it happen in front of their eyes.

[Jigsaw]

but you probably wouldn't want 70,000 punters at RIAT seeing it happen in front of their eyes.

I'd rather see that at RIAT than the other possible outcome (for all the right reasons of course)

[Crew chief]

Looks like the pilot may of still had the nose wheel steering button pressed as he tried to kick her straight with rudder which caused the aircraft to swing.There is a speed that the nose wheel steering button should be released and the aircraft steered with rudder only but i can't remember what it is about 70ish knots i think.


cc.

[Spitfire]

Found this video of a nice model of a Whirlwind .......


Some pics .....





Westland Whirlwind detail

[Jigsaw]

A very nice looking aircraft imo

[Mayfly]

Thanks SF nice

[Gully]

Thanks, Spitfire! Looks a pretty aircraft IMO. Shame they were all scrapped .

Wiki refers to a scale replica being built about 5 years ago, but the project seems to have stalled. Fingers crossed it happens one day - be great to see one of Teddy Petter's early piston designs in the sky again.

Gully