AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 116 / 293

Plate 116 of 293 · Second World War · Twin-engined cannon fighter

Westland Whirlwind

Whirlwind I, P7094, painted as P7094 ‘HE-T’, a Westland Whirlwind I of No. 263 Squadron in 1941–42, the ‘Bellows Foundation’ presentation aircraft: the RAF’s first single-seat twin-engined fighter, a slim low-wing monoplane with two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines in slender nacelles, radiators buried in the wing centre section, four 20 mm Hispano cannon clustered in the nose, a bubble canopy, Fowler flaps and a cruciform tail with the tailplane set halfway up the fin, shown tail down on its wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green above with Sky under-surfaces, Sky spinners and a Sky band round the rear fuselage, the Sky codes ‘HE’ and ‘T’ either side of a yellow-ringed fuselage roundel, a red, white and blue fin flash, the black serial ‘P7094’ and the Bellows Foundation inscription under the port windscreen, as photographed by the Air Ministry (no Whirlwind survives; the shape was taken from a published three-view cross-checked against wartime photographs; the camouflage pattern is approximated and the wing roundels follow other 263 Squadron aircraft).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as P7094 ‘HE-T’, a Westland Whirlwind I of No. 263 Squadron in 1941–42, the ‘Bellows Foundation’ presentation aircraft: the RAF’s first single-seat twin-engined fighter, a slim low-wing monoplane with two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines in slender nacelles, radiators buried in the wing centre section, four 20 mm Hispano cannon clustered in the nose, a bubble canopy, Fowler flaps and a cruciform tail with the tailplane set halfway up the fin, shown tail down on its wheels: Dark Earth and Dark Green above with Sky under-surfaces, Sky spinners and a Sky band round the rear fuselage, the Sky codes ‘HE’ and ‘T’ either side of a yellow-ringed fuselage roundel, a red, white and blue fin flash, the black serial ‘P7094’ and the Bellows Foundation inscription under the port windscreen, as photographed by the Air Ministry (no Whirlwind survives; the shape was taken from a published three-view cross-checked against wartime photographs; the camouflage pattern is approximated and the wing roundels follow other 263 Squadron aircraft). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.2 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (P.9 Whirlwind I); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Whirlwind I, P7094 modelled here.

History

The Whirlwind

In 1935 the Air Ministry issued specification F.37/35 for a single-seat fighter armed with four 20 mm cannon, at a time when RAF fighters still carried rifle-calibre machine guns. Westland’s young chief designer, W. E. W. ‘Teddy’ Petter, answered it with the P.9: a small, slim monoplane with two Rolls-Royce Peregrines, a developed Kestrel, in slender nacelles, the engine radiators buried in the leading edge of the wing centre section, large Fowler flaps, a bubble canopy and the four cannon packed close together in the nose. The tailplane was set halfway up the fin, clear of the airflow from the flaps. The first prototype, L6844, flew at Yeovil on 11 October 1938.

The Whirlwind was fast at low level and pleasant to fly, but it depended on the Peregrine, and Rolls-Royce, needing every resource for the Merlin, let it go out of production. Orders were cut back, and only 116 Whirlwinds were built, prototypes included. No. 263 Squadron began to receive them in the summer of 1940 and, after a long run of teething troubles, flew them on convoy patrols, escort sorties and low-level attacks across the Channel. No. 137 Squadron was formed with the type in September 1941.

From 1942 both squadrons fitted their Whirlwinds with racks for two 250 lb, later 500 lb, bombs, and as ‘Whirlibombers’ they attacked shipping, airfields and railways in northern France at very low level. No. 137 Squadron gave up its Whirlwinds for Hurricanes in June 1943, and No. 263 flew the last of them until it converted to the Typhoon at the end of that year. No Whirlwind survives; the Whirlwind Fighter Project is building a full-size replica.

This airframe

Whirlwind I P7094

P7094The airframe modelled

P7094 ‘HE-T’ was a Whirlwind I of No. 263 Squadron in 1941 and 1942, a presentation aircraft paid for by the Bellows Foundation, a fund raised in South America, whose name it carried under the windscreen. No Whirlwind survives, so the model shows an airframe that photographs record well: an Air Ministry photograph of P7094 on the ground, held by the Imperial War Museum, is the best side view of any Whirlwind. The model shows it as that photograph does: Dark Earth and Dark Green above with Sky under-surfaces, Sky spinners and a Sky band round the rear fuselage, the Sky codes ‘HE’ and ‘T’ either side of a yellow-ringed roundel, a red, white and blue fin flash below the tailplane and the serial in black ahead of the band. Its shape was taken from a published three-view, cross-checked against a second drawing and against wartime photographs, which put the canopy a little further aft than the drawing. The photograph does not show the wings, so the camouflage pattern is approximated and the wing roundels follow other 263 Squadron aircraft; the letter ‘T’ is ahead of the roundel on both sides, as on other 263 Squadron aircraft, and the small stencils are left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

No Whirlwind fighter survives. The Whirlwind Fighter Project is building a full-size replica, but no original airframe is held by any museum.

All 293 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.