Price: £20.00

Westland Whirlwind

The Westland Whirlwind was designed and built to fill the RAF's need for a "cannon fighter" during the late 1930's. After a series of staid biplanes Westlands, ( the new chief designer was Teddy Petter who later designed the English Electric Canberra and Lightning) proposed an elegant, streamlined twin with the massive punch of four twenty mm hispano cannon mounted in the nose. The engine was to be the untried Rolls Royce Peregrine, a development of the successful Kestrel.

The first prototype flew in October 1938 with production beginning the next year. High hopes were held for the Whirlwind which was placed on the "top secret" list. Indeed the Whirlwind was found to be a formidable warplane, especially at low level where it was considerably faster than the Supermarine Spitfire and lighter on the controls, and with potentially a far greater range of action. Unfortunately the achilles heel of the Whirlwind was the engine, which didn't deliver the promised power and was horribly unreliable. When Rolls Royce abandoned the Peregrine to concentrate on Merlin production and development, the Whirlwind was left without an engine, ( just like the Wyvern!)

Nonetheless squadron deliveries began in June 1940 and operations began the following year. Considering it's limited use, (only two operating squadrons) the Whirlwind was a highly succesful offensive weapon, and very popular with its pilots. It is a very great shame that at this early stage of the war when the RAF really needed a long range fighter the Whirlwind was allowed to fade away. If official sanction to replace the troublesome Peregrines with Merlins had been obtained then a truly remarkable fighter might have resulted.

Performance

Maximum level speed: 360 mph at 15,000 ft
Weight: 11,388 lbs max take off weight
Powerplant: Two Rolls Royce Peregrines, of 885 hp
Armament: Four 20mm Hispano Cannon and two 500 lb bombs