Project Cancelled: Alternative Never-Were British Aircraft

The Shorts S.B.3 anti-submarine variant flown in 1950 but soon discarded due to control problems due to the Mamba turboprop efflux which destabilised the aircraft. It proved impossible to trim to fly on one engine. Only one prototype ever flew, the other never did and both were scrapped in 1951.
The deep nose contained two radar operators with the radar below them.

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

The Westland Westminster was further developed. The Westland Westminster used the rotor system and transmission of the Sikorsky S.56. Westland held a licence agreement to build the S-56 but instead embarked on a radical redesign powered by two Napier Eland N.El.3 turboshafts. It was proposed to seat 40 passengers and cruise at 130 knots over 150nm stage lengths. Direct operating costs were estimated at 3.9d per passenger per mile at 100% load factor for an annual utilisation of 2000 hours. Despite the lack of offical approval Westland pressed ahead and built a ground running rig. This was so successful that it actually flew as the prototype G-APLE in June 1958. A flying crane was proposed for the RAF capable of carrying 15,000ln loads. The second prototype G-APTX had a midships engineers cabin and eventuallu its fuselage was totallu covered. The S-56 transmission gave problems and Westland sunk £1,350,000 of its own money into the programme but still no offical interest was raised and in 1959-60 Westland slowly absorbed all the helicopter programmes in the UK but the Westminster died in favour of the Rotodyne which did have some limited offical approval.

The civil variant above was to seat 35-40 passengers at an all-up weight of 33,500lbs. The military variant had clamshell rear doors and an all-up weight of 35,000lbs and a cruising speed of 100 knots (185 km/h). In hindsight if Westland could have made Westminster work, and had the government not backed the radical, but risky, Rotodyne then the Sea King could of had a bigger brother. Had they pressed ahead BEA would have brought these instead of the S.61 heliliners it brought in 1964 and the RAF would not have brought the Chinook. The Puma would have made a good companion too.

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

Brilliant

And a good history.

oh great! this is really cool! I was experimenting with my own drawing, It was really a design with great possibility.

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Worklist:
- Victorian Navy - LINK
- ROC/Taiwan - 中華民國空軍 / 陸軍航特部 / 海軍航空兵 - LINK
- RHKAAF / HKGFS - 皇家香港輔助空軍 / 政府飛行服務隊
- Gunbucket - LINK

天滅中共全黨死清光!

Beautiful helicopters Hood. May I suggest you make a skycrane variant of the Westminster, if one was under consideration, of course.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Superb drawings and another great missed oppertunity for the British aircraft industry.This may help.

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Great drawings! The Westminster is something of a forgotten project, I know that British aviation fans tend to argue that the Rotodyne was a big missed opportunity but reading Hood's history of the project I can help but think that the Rotodyne was probably too advanced for its time and the Westminster was in hindsight the project that should have been fully backed.

Epic job Darth Panda!

Shipbucket

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