Westland Whirlwind (fighter)

The Whirlwind was an small twin-engine fighter from the Westland company. It was one of the fastest aircraft in the air when it flew in the late 1930's, and much more heavily armed than anything flying. However protracted development problems with the Rolls Royce Peregrine engines it relied on ended up delaying the entire project, and only a handful were built.

A serious problem for air planners of the 1930's was that you could build a nimble plane only if it was small. Such a plane had the problem of not having enough range to fight in anything other than defensive operations, and would not be able to take the fight to the enemy. The only way that a plane could lift enough fuel to do so would be to mount two engines, but it seemed that any plane large enough would be too unwieldly to fight its single engine counterparts.

The Germans and US pressed ahead with such programs anyway, resulting in the Messerschmidt Me 110 and the Lockheed P-38. Soon the Luftwaffe was boasting that the 110 could beat any single engine fighter, and so so while operating at long ranges escorting their bombers. This piqued the interest of the Air Ministry who finally decided to try their hand at such a plane, and sent out a contract for designs. Both Gloster and Westland responded, with the F.9/37 and F.37/35 respectively.

The aircraft Westland returned was likely the best twin-engine fighter of its era. The main fuselage was very skinny and quite modern looking, with a T-tail and the pilot sitting under a bubble-style canopy. In front was a massive armament of four 20mm cannons, making it by far the most heavily armed plane in the world. Best of all, its careful attention to streamlining and two Rolls Royce Peregrine engines drove it to over 360mph, the same speed as the latest single-engine fighters mounting much larger engines.

But there were problems as well. The plane actually had quite short range, and could barely pass the Spitfire. But more worrysome was the continued failure of the Peregrine engines. Originally intended to be one of Rolls' main designs, the Merlin had since become much more important to the war effort and the Peregrine was ignored. Soon the engine was cancelled outright, and since much of the performance of the plane depended on the careful streamlining around the engines, there was little choice but to cancel the plane as well.

112 Whirlwinds were produced in total, arming two squadrons. At low altitudes no other plane could catch it, so they were used primarily as strike fighters where they were referred to as the Whirlybomber. Soon 20mm cannons were being fitted to the Supermarine Spitfire, and with "fighter" conversions of longer ranged planes like the Bristol Beaufighter and faster strike fighters like the Hawker Typhoon becoming widely available, the Whirlwind was removed from service in late 1943. Today none exist.

Note:

The Whirlwind was also the name of another Westland product, the post-war helicopter.