The Plane with the Most Insane Cannons of WW2

[Music] throughout world war ii the royal air force successfully developed many fighter aircraft to confront the feared luftwaffe still several fighters were largely forgotten and eclipsed by the powerful german warplanes and the westland whirlwind was one of them a highly capable twin-engine heavy fighter the whirlwind was one of the fastest combat aircraft when it first took to the skies as well as the world's most heavily armed fighter with four hispano-souza hs 404 20 millimeter auto cannons mounted on its nose the type was explicitly made to fire hundreds of rounds per second the whirlwind consistently served over the english channel as the battle of britain approached and was expected to destroy anything that came in its path that is until its own engines got in the way [Music] westland aircraft as the prospect of war with germany became more likely in the 1930s the united kingdom's royal air force evaluated its current aircraft shortcomings while the hawker hurricane and supermarine spitfire fighters were extremely advanced designs for their time both warplanes had a short range and were only armed with browning machine guns it was thus believed that a longer-range heavy fighter armed with cannons would be needed to destroy the german bombers and to escort british bombers on raids deep in the enemy territory by then several aircraft designers around the world also perceived that increased attack tap speeds were imposing shorter firing times on fighter pilots translating into less ammunition hitting the target [Music] after a thorough study the british air ministry decided that instead of the more common setup consisting of two rifle caliber machine guns a fighter with up to eight would deliver 256 rounds per second as such the air ministry issued an operational requirement in 1935 calling for a single seat day and night heavy fighter armed with four cannons also the new aircraft's top speed had to be at least 330 miles per hour at 15 000 feet which was at least 40 miles per hour higher than all other contemporary bombers after receiving proposals from several british aircraft manufacturers the air ministry took two years for evaluations until the submission from westland aircraft was selected the design team had just undergone a restructuring and was led by william edward willoughby teddy petter the new company leading engineer was a former student of aerodynamics at cambridge university and had an innate understanding of how air flowed around aircraft thus designing an aircraft that employed state-of-the-art technology and ultimately convincing the demanding air ministry [Music] whirlwind the westland whirlwind fighter was a highly innovative design for its time with a set of two rolls-royce kestrel engines mounted in pods underneath the low wings the motor was a proven and reliable model also used in interwar british aircraft such as the hawker fury biplane fighter the whirlwind was also the first british fighter with a bubble canopy providing excellent vision the initial prototype was made of all metal with a magnesium skin on the fuselage's rear and made its maiden flight in october of 1938 just as the war loomed closer the initial flight tests were so promising that the air ministry almost ordered the aircraft into immediate production however the westland engineers decided that the kestrel engine should be replaced with a newly developed upgraded and supercharged rolls-royce engine the peregrine westland was aiming for improved all-around performance by producing over 850 horsepower compared to the 650 of the kestrel the engines were cooled by ducted radiators fitted in the intersection of the wing to reduce drag these also provided cockpit heat something that was lacking in many other royal air force models of the period by early 1939 the whirlwind program was finally at a point in which the air ministry could place large-scale orders as such the office ordered 200 aircraft as a first batch and 200 more as a second on paper the aircraft came from a record-breaking and incredibly unique design and the royal air force officials hoped that its new warplane would be decisive in changing the tide of the war consequently the model was kept under wraps from the general public until 1942 early operations the first production whirlwind fluids made in flight in june of 1940 and deliveries began the following month the royal air force 263rd squadron still reforming at the grangemouth air base in scotland after suffering devastating losses in the norwegian campaign was the first to receive the model on july 6th despite an urgent need for fighters during the battle of britain during the summer and autumn of 1940 the 263rd squadron remained in scotland as deliveries of the westland whirlwind fighters were rolling out slower than initially planned the aircraft were declared fully operational on december 7th 1940 and initial operations consisted of convoy patrols and hunting and destroying german e-boats in the english channel early 1941 the 263rd squadron had considerable success flying the whirlwind against the feared german air force junkers ju-88s dornier do-217s messerschmitt bf-109s and falcovolf fw 190s the first air-to-air fatal hit credited to a westland whirlwind occurred on february 8 1941 when a pilot of the 263rd squadron shot down an errato ar-196 float plane at the time of its introduction the model's four hispano mark one 20-millimeter cannon armament capable of delivering a weight of fire of up to 600 pounds of explosive shells per minute was the most powerful armament of any aircraft in the world these cannons were increasingly used in their ground attack and bomber escort rolls throughout the next two years however they were prone to jamming and the metal often caused bruises on the pilot's hands while shooting [Music] a significant setback with a maximum speed of 360 miles per hour similar to early versions of the spitfire fighter the whirlwind also had an operational range of almost twice that of its contemporaries and while its overall performance was reasonable many royal air force pilots noted that its maneuverability fell short of initial expectations however the aircraft had an even more crucial issue its engines were both underpowered and unreliable the record-breaking rolls-royce merlin was the main engine used by the royal air force throughout most of world war ii but the whirlwind used the far inferior rolls-royce peregrine machines that consumed three times the aircraft alloy as the prized spitfire as france fell to the germans the british government scrambled to prepare for the seemingly inevitable battle of britain in the summer of 1940 and the war cabinet ordered that all resources be directed for the nation's defense thus attention inevitably switched to building as many spitfire and hurricane fighter aircraft as possible to streamline production the rolls-royce company decided to focus on producing the merlin engine used in both fighters practically halting the entire development of the peregrine motor while some officials discussed the possibility of continuing production of the whirlwind by replacing the peregrine with the merlin engine the action would have required a significant and costly redesign as the latter was both larger and heavier with all resources focused on the merlin the peregrine was only produced 301 times and this lack of engines also halted the production of the whirlwind the last of only 116 whirlwinds was delivered to the royal air force in january of 1942 whirly bombers even though fewer whirlwinds than initially expected were ultimately produced those in service still had a long way to go with the performance of the peregrine engines lacking at high altitudes the whirlwind was relegated to mostly performing ground attack missions over france 67 models were eventually converted to a fighter bomber configuration with underwing racks capable of carrying two 500 pound bombs these modified whirlwinds nicknamed whirly bombers blasted hundreds of locomotives bridges shipping and other targets all over northern france in september of 1941 the 137th squadron a unit specialized in attacks against railway targets received its first westland whirlwind however as 1943 approached new cannon fighters like the typhoon were available for ground attack duties leading to the withdrawal of the whirlwind after a very short wartime service life the final flight of a westland whirlwind was recorded in june of 1943 after an attack by the 263rd squadron on a german airfield at poi france then the following january the type was officially declared obsolete by the royal air force legacy while the westland whirlwind was a capable fighter and ground attack aircraft its development was hampered by an unreliable and later unavailable engine despite its shortcomings the whirlwind was well liked by most pilots according to sergeant gl buckwell of the 263rd squadron who was shot down while flying a mission in france the type was quote great to fly we were a privileged few in retrospect the lesson of the whirlwind is clear a radical aircraft requires either prolonged development or widespread service to exploit its concept and eliminate its weaknesses too often in world war ii such aircraft suffered accelerated development or limited service with the result that teasing difficulties came to be regarded as permanent limitations the last airworthy whirlwind was retained by the westland company as an executive transport and was scrapped in 1947 in the end its limited production ensured that this long forgotten aircraft never received the recognition given to other royal air force fighters of the era thank you for watching dark skies if you enjoyed this story don't forget to hit the thumbs up icon and share it with someone who might like it and for more historical and military content check out all our other dark documentaries channels see you next time

Channel: Dark Skies

Views: 979,126

Keywords: aviation, airplanes, aircraft, air force, history, documentary, history channel, documentary channel, dark docs, dark skies, Westland Whirlwind, raf, ww2, wwii

Id: DIhUkhdbUPg

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 19 2022