Trumpeter 1/48 Westland Whirlwind (Not the Helicopter!)

[eddiesolo]

I spent an evening adding individual instrument decals to the instrument panel.Now it's installed in the fuselage you can barely see it!.

About right...

Si

[Dave W]

Cheers dave where did you get them from ?

I get them from Hannants.In this scale I think they look as good as the fabric ones.And you get four in a set.The fabric ones are more expensive and you only get one in the packet!.

[flyjoe180]

Coming along nicely Dave.

[Alan 45]

I get them from Hannants.In this scale I think they look as good as the fabric ones.And you get four in a set.The fabric ones are more expensive and you only get one in the packet!.

Cheers dave , I have a few 1/48 aircraft and they will make a big difference to the cockpits

[Guest]

I don't know if you saw this on eBay but the pictures would make good reference. The description also mentions some cannons from CMK, which you might be able to get hold of. It may well be worth getting the magazine that this was in as well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Professionally-Built-Model-1-48-Trumpeter-1-48-Westland-Whirlwind-/121409732587?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEDWX%3AIT&_trksid= p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=mHJiYPJQfwLYVY4OniGv3go ZzO4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

[Dave W]

I don't know if you saw this on eBay but the pictures would make good reference. The description also mentions some cannons from CMK, which you might be able to get hold of. It may well be worth getting the magazine that this was in as well.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Professionally-Built-Model-1-48-Trumpeter-1-48-Westland-Whirlwind-/121409732587?ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&_trksid=p204 7675.l2557&nma=true&si=mHJiYPJQfwLYVY4OniGv3goZzO4 %3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Nice model built by Jay Laverty. He's the editor of one of the model magazines.No chance of mine being as good as his.

[papa 695]

Hi Dave I don't know how I missed the start of this one. Great work so far and the seat belts make a real difference. Looking forward to more updates

[yak face]

Nice start Dave , its a kit I might have to get sometime too. It looks like its par for the course for trumpeter lately , great subject but a bit careless in the research ( the instrument decal ) The recent Vampire fb9 is the same as this - not many bits but a glaring error thats easily fixed . Looking forward to seeing the next bit , cheers tony

[Guest]

Nice start Dave and a very intresting subject, looking forward to seeing this build out!

[stona]

The Whirlwind is a great looking aircraft, it simply looks very fast (even if the top speed was only comparable to the best contemporary single engined fighters) I guess it looks spritely with very clean lines.

It was a quick aircraft, particularly at low level. It's nick name was 'Crikey' supposedly from a series of 'Crikey that was fast' adverts for Shell products at the time.



At 15,800 feet the A+AEE clocked L6845 at 354 mph which was quite a bit less than the 370-390 mph estimated. The real problem however was a lack of ceiling. At 24,000ft the rate of climb fell to less than 1,000ft per minute and it took twenty five minutes to climb the 6,000ft up to 30,000ft. As aerial combat, at least in the West, was spiralling upwards to ever greater altitudes this was not good enough.

Cheers

Steve

[Dave W]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Whirlwind_(fighter)

It was actually quite successful.

[stona]

Considering it was axed at least twice and finally a limited number were built to use up parts and the available Peregrine engines it did do okay. It was a good aircraft at low level, but this wasn't really what was needed in 1940 and thereafter.

Dowding, by the way, didn't rate it at all and had a very low opinion of Westland as well (related to problems with the Lysander).

The point made in that link forced and rushed development is valid. The Whirlwind was a very advanced design as it came off the drawing board and there was little time to properly sort out problems like those of the tail wheel, exhausts, slats, never mind the Peregrine engine. The latter was nowhere near as bad as some would have you believe, but there were problems.

It's also worth remembering that problems at Westland in 1938 caused a loss of confidence in the Whirlwind, which had been designed in early 1936 and still hadn't flown. This led directly to the ordering of 300 Beaufighters, sight unseen, though based on the Beaufort, in February 1939.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Steve, Apologies for being off topic but just a quick question that has bugged me for a long time and I know you will have the answer.

What is the difference between a Cannon and a Machine Gun, apart from the fact that Cannons seem to be bigger?

[stona]

The hitting power. Cannon fired much larger rounds which could contain a significant amount of explosive or incendiary material. A USN study (the USN adopted cannon on its aircraft long before the USAAF/USAF) concluded that a typical British fighter armed with four 20mm cannon had twice the hitting power of a typical US fighter armed with six .50 calibre machine guns.

The USAAF got away with machine gun armament for so long because its primary target was Luftwaffe fighters or lightly built and unarmoured Japanese types. These were very much easier to destroy than the armoured bombers that the Luftwaffe in particular was targeting. By the end of the war a 30mm cannon was being widely fitted to Luftwaffe fighters.

The British had concluded long before the war that even the eight .303 machine guns of their 'eight gun fighters', the Spitfire and Hurricane, would soon prove inadequate. They eschewed the adoption of a heavier machine guns for a variety of reasons, not least that the projectile could not be loaded with enough explosive/incendiary material, in favour of a 20mm cannon. The Whirlwind was an early result of the requirement for a cannon armed fighter.

To see just how much bigger even a 20mm cannon shell was compared to a 12.7mm (equivalent to .50 calibre) heavy machine gun round, have a look on Tony Williams' site under 'aircraft'.

http://www.quarryhs.co.uk/tankammo.html

Cheers

Steve

[BarryW]

I would love them to produce a 32 scale Whirlwind. You have made a great start Dave.

I have some HGW and RB productions fabric seatbelts to try and they suggest not using superglue but Gator Glue or similar.