Westland Whirlwind
The Westland Whirlwind was a British twin-engined, single-seat fighter of the Second World War, built by Westland Aircraft to Air Ministry specification F.37/35 for a fighter armed with four cannon. First flown on 11 October 1938, it was fast at low altitude, with four 20 mm cannon grouped in its nose, but its Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines were unreliable and lost power with altitude, and in December 1940 production was cut back to the first 112 aircraft. Only Nos. 263 and 137 Squadrons operated it, on convoy patrols and low-level cross-Channel strikes, until 1943. No complete example survives; a full-scale reconstruction is under way for the Kent Battle of Britain Museum.
Why It Mattered
The Whirlwind was the first twin-engined fighter to enter RAF service. Historian J. Rickard, writing for History of War, notes that the new fighter was faster at low altitude than any single-seat fighter of its day, and that no fighter in the world then carried heavier firepower than its four nose cannon. It was Westland's answer to Air Ministry specification F.37/35, which called for a fighter armed with four cannon. For all that promise, only two squadrons were ever equipped with the type, and its front-line career was over by the end of 1943.
Design Notes
Westland's design team, led by W. E. W. Petter, produced a low-wing monoplane with a small frontal area. Because the engines were carried in the wings, all four 20 mm cannon could be grouped together in the nose. The cockpit sat above the wing under a bubble canopy, and the pilot had a good all-round view. The fuselage was a monocoque structure with a T-tail. Power came from two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines of 885 hp each, a twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled design developed from the Kestrel. The Peregrine served the aircraft well at low level, but its power fell off at higher altitudes. It also proved unreliable and slow to build, with little potential for further development.
Operational History
The first prototype flew on 11 October 1938, and in January 1939 Westland received a production contract for 200 aircraft. In December 1940, after the Battle of Britain had shown that altitude and speed decided fighter combat, the Air Ministry cancelled all but the first 112 production aircraft. Production ended in January 1942. No. 263 Squadron, re-formed after heavy losses in the Norwegian campaign, received its first Whirlwinds in July 1940 and flew them alongside Hurricanes until November. The squadron became operational that December on convoy patrols from Exeter, and the type's first confirmed kill came on 8 February 1941, with the destruction of an Arado Ar 196 floatplane. From the summer of 1941 the squadron flew offensive sweeps across occupied France, settling into low-level attacks on ground targets and shipping. No. 137 Squadron became the second Whirlwind unit in September 1941 and began offensive operations across the Channel on 24 October 1941. In the summer of 1942 both squadrons were fitted with racks for two bombs and nicknamed "Whirlibombers", attacking locomotives, bridges, shipping and other targets on low-level sweeps. No. 137 Squadron kept its Whirlwinds until June 1943, when they were replaced by rocket-armed Hurricanes. No. 263 Squadron retained the type until December 1943, when Typhoons replaced it.
Afterlife
After retirement in December 1943, the surviving Whirlwinds, all but one, were sent to No. 18 Maintenance Unit at Dumfries, where they were scrapped. The exception was P7048, which Westland retained; it received a civil certificate of airworthiness on 10 October 1946 as G-AGOI and flew briefly as a company hack before being withdrawn and scrapped in 1947. In October 1979 the remains of P6966, the first Whirlwind to be lost, were recovered near Grangemouth, including both Peregrine engines and many pieces of the airframe. No original Whirlwind survives, so in 2011 the Whirlwind Fighter Project proposed building a complete reconstruction of P7056, "Pride of Yeovil", indistinguishable from an aircraft in squadron service. The project aims at historical accuracy rather than airworthiness, and its permanent display home is the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge. The completed cockpit was delivered to the museum in May 2023; the rear fuselage was mated with it in 2024, and in October 2025 the tail section was fitted.