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Special Hobby Westland Whirlwind Mk 1


Iain

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My father who grew up in Bath, Somerset, saw them frequently and indeed saw one crash. We were at an airshow one and we struck up a conversation with a chap, turned out he too came from Bath. They got to reminiscing about their childhood and the crash came up, and they discovered both had got on their bikes (along with a load of other kids!!) and beat the local Home Guard to the wreck! Dad got a tail light cover and the other chap some some rather bent instruments!! Small world!!

 

PS I've looked for the light cover all over, but no luck I am afraid.... Dad passed away in 2009.

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Ps. Just imagine what this aircraft would have been capable of had it had the same Merlin powerplant, some propellor system as the Mk IX Spits, and fuel crossfeed and self sealing fuel tanks with redundant flight controls. The in-field serviceability and operational readiness including combat survivability would have been outstanding.

Isnt that the de Havilland Hornet? The best prop fighter plane ever? 

 

WIP35_zps120f99ee.jpg

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Cees, are you sure about that? I always thought the Welkin had been designed for high altitude interception, so a rather different role than the Whirlwind one.

 

 

The Welkins were designed as a high altitude fighter to intercept the Ju86P. These had the 2 stage Merlin engines instead of the Peregrine. 

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Well, if you had to adapt the Whirlwind airframe to use Merlins, the nacelles would have to be bigger, the wings had to grow as a result and then the fuselage too. Not that the Welkin was designed as a fighter/bomber but the airframe looks like a Whirlwind on steroids.

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The result was the Welkin, not very succesful although about 70 built.

 

Although the Welkin F.1 was specifically designed for high altitude fighting, an enlarged Merlin powered Whirlwind may have made a difference?

 

Derek

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My father who grew up in Bath, Somerset, saw them frequently and indeed saw one crash. We were at an airshow one and we struck up a conversation with a chap, turned out he too came from Bath. They got to reminiscing about their childhood and the crash came up, and they discovered both had got on their bikes (along with a load of other kids!!) and beat the local Home Guard to the wreck! Dad got a tail light cover and the other chap some some rather bent instruments!! Small world!!

 

PS I've looked for the light cover all over, but no luck I am afraid.... Dad passed away in 2009.

 

If that was the one that came down in the Weston area of Bath, my Dad was literally underneath the other Whirlwind it had collided with. He was watching trains at our local railway station just outside Bath when the plane came screaming out of the sky straight at him, crashing no more than 40 yards from him in the station yard, exploding on impact.

The only momento my Dad got from that was a piece of flying debris in his leg!

Small world indeed.

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Yes, that's the one!  Of course, I didn't ask the Old Man enough questions when he was alive, and now it is too late. Lesson learned there for anyone with older relatives with a bit of history to their name.... Talk with them NOW! You never know what they might recall!

 

Tim

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http://www.saltfordenvironmentgroup.org.uk/history/historyresources/1941-whirlwind-crash-saltford-station-by-philharding.pdf

 

I think my father would have gone to the other crash, as I am pretty sure at that time,  his family were living nearby the house directly opposite the entrance to Haycombe Cemetery. I think it is a Vets now, but at the time it was a funeral directors office, and my grandfather was a monumental stone mason, worked in the yard preparing and maintaining the memorials and headstones in the cemetery. Kelston is nearer there than Saltford. 

 

Hm, actually, looking at the map, there isn't much in it!! 

 

Small world indeed! And all the more reason to get one of the kits when it is released!

Edited by wunwinglow
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Well, if you had to adapt the Whirlwind airframe to use Merlins, the nacelles would have to be bigger, the wings had to grow as a result and then the fuselage too.

Hmmm, I can feel a What If calling, might have a use for my Trumpeter kit after all

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