The Westland Whirwind Mk.I

The Westland Whirlwind belongs to that category of aircraft which entered production but failed to live up to their designers' expectations. Its unreliable engines can be seen as a major reason for this but it only serves to hide other serious problems. Indeed, even with better engines the results would probably have been the same, as the concept of a twin-engined fighter aircraft capable of meeting single-engined fighters escorting bombers formations on an equal footing was fallacious, as ...