Shipbucket

Westland Whirlwind
No.263 Sqn, RAF Exeter, 1941

This was a request from Nigel, which I was happy to do, being a fan of the type myself and I've drawn a fair few Westland types now.

This overlooked fighter was designed by W.E.W. Petter to meet Spec F.37/35 ( I've already drawn some of the competitors). Westland won the contract and 200 were ordered. The first of two prototypes flew on 11 October 1938. The armament was four 20mm Hispano cannon in the nose, at the time the heaviest firepower of any fighter (600lb, 272kg, per minute). It was powered by two 885hp Rolls-Royce Peregrine V-12 engines, a development of the successful Kestrel line. Deliveries began in July 1940 to 263 squadron. Production was delayed due to a shortage of engines (the Peregrine eventually being cancelled to concentrate on Merlin production) and only 8 were received by the end of 1940. The first 'kill', a Ar 196, came on 8 February 1941, although a Whirlwind was also lost. In September 1941, 137 Squadron was formed with the type and these were the only two squadrons to use them. A good low level performer, but poor at higher altitudes, it was soon used for fighter sweeps and light bombing carrying up to 1,000lbs. Only 112 of the 200 ordered were completed and the last was delivered in January 1942. 137 Sqn converted to the Typhoon in June 1943, 263 following in December. Only one Whirlwind survived the war, a hack with Westland which was scrapped in 1947. Today, a team is hoping to rebuild a Whirlwind using the original plans.
Trials included night-fighter use with 25 Sqn in May-June 1940, and the first prototype underwent tests with 12 Browning .303in MGs in the nose, and later a single 37mm cannon.

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Thanks for comments!

@Hood
Oooops!
Actually recently someone else also discussed with me an issue of Whirlwind.


Well, never mind.

Lol! the Whirlwind: The most claimed airplane in FD history.

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Currently working on:

• Fiat G.50
  Breda Ba.64/65/75
  Dornier Do.17/Do.215
  Heinkel He.79
  Junkers Ju.52
  Junkers J.I

Repainting:

• Grumman F4F Wildcat/Grumman G-36
  Caproni Ca.135bis

They were a wonderful looking aircraft, a decent set of engines would have cured 90% of their problems with one stroke.

Well executed drawing Hood, Eswube would be referring to whether you excluded or included the canons in the length.

Lol! No! Why should I? Hood knows what should be included in the aircraft's length and what shouldn't.



(There is a minor difference in length between our drawings, but it's just a minor scaling error - quite possibly mine - not an issue of between which points the length is counted)


EDIT: according to Wiki (well, yeah ), Whirlwind's length is 9,83m which gives 217,17419 pixels (round 217).
Hood's is 220 pixels long from tip of cannons to end of tail, mine is 217, but without cannons it's 214 and 212 respectively, so Your worries are premature, Krakatoa.

Its very informative to compaire 2 masters work on the same subject, I'm mentaly picking diffrent parts that I prefer on each one almost tempted to make a kit bash with them together.
JSB

@JSB
Result of such kitbash could be very interesting.

And here's the source I used, in case anyone was interested:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/eswube/z ... rlwind.jpg
(and it seems that I actually forgot a detail or two )

Well hope Hood dosn't mind, my kitbash mix.


JSB

We've both drawn what looks to be almost identical and equally well drawn. I prefer my cannons as they more accurately reflect the shape of the real thing (although adding the prop blades obscures much of that that!). I added some details from photos where possible.
My length came from a book I've had for many years rather than trusting wiki.

The kitbash looks good, but not sure why you've levelled off the canopy though.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

After more hours of work I had thought it the begining, the AW119 Koala