Westland Whirlwind, part two

No.25 Squadron, based at North Weald, was the first squadron to receive the Westland Whirlwind. The Whirlwind was evaluated by that squadron in late May 1940 however it was decided to re-equip the squadron with the night-fighter version of the Bristol Beaufighter as the No.25 was already a night-fighter squadron and the Whirlwind would've required some adaptations which the Bristol Beaufighter didn't.
The first squadron to fly the Whirlwind operationally was the No. 263 Squadron, which was undergoing reformation at Grangemouth, Scotland after sustaining heavy losses during the Norwegian campaign. The first Whirlwind arrived on 6th July 1940. However, deliveries were slow and on 17th August 1940 there were only 5 of them and none of them were serviceable, with the squadron flying the Hawker Hurricane as an interim fighter. In spite of the Battle of Britain and the urgent need for fighters in the South of England, the squadron remained in Scotland as Air Chief Marshall Hugh Downing stated that the No.263 Squadron couldn't be deployed in the South because "there was no room for 'passengers' in that part of the world."
Shortly after, on 7th December 1940 No.263 Squadron was rebased to RAF Exeter, this time fully equipped with Westland Whirlwind. Initially they conducted convoy and anti E-boat patrols. The first confirmed kill by a Whirlwind took place on 8th February 1941 when an Arado Ar.196 was shot down with the responsible Whirlwind crashing into the sea killing the pilot. From then on, the squadron enjoyed certain success with the Whirlwind fighting against the Junkers Ju.88, Dornier Do.217, Messerschmitt Bf.109 and Focke-Wulf Fw.190.
The 263 squadron also carried out ocasional escort missions. For instance, they escorted a formation of 54 Blenheims on a low-level raid against power stations in Cologne on 12th August 1941. Due to the short range of the Whirlwinds (and the rest of the fighter escort), they had to turn back at Antwerp, leaving the Blenheim unescorted and losing ten of them in the raid.
The squadron flew mostly attack sorties both against ground and naval targets. The Whirlwind proved a challenge for German fighters flying at low level as proved on 6th August 1941 when four Whirlwinds which were on an anti-shipping strike, were intercepted by a formation of Messerschmitt Bf.109 with three Bf.109 claimed and no British losses.
A second Whirlwind squadron, the No.137 Squadron, was formed in September 1941, specialising in attacks against railway targets. One year later, the improved version, Whirlwind Mk.IA appeared which carried underwing bombs, which proved very effective in ground attack missions.
No.137 Squadron took heavy losses on 12th February 1942 in the Channel Dash, when they were sent to escort British destroyers, unaware of the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the area. They took off 13:10 hours and soon they spotted the German warships about 20mi (32Km) off the Belgian coast when they descended to investigate and were intercepted by a large formation of 20 Bf.109s of the JG.2. The Whirlwinds were heavily outnumbered and four of the eight were lost during the ambush.
The last Whirlwind mission with the No.137 Squadron took place on 21st June 1943 when five Whirlwinds took off for a ground attack patrol against the German airfield in Poix-de-Picardie, France. One of the Whirlwinds was unable to locate the target and instead attacked a train located north of Rue. While returning his engine malfunctioned and had to force land at RAF Marston heavily damaging the aircraft with the pilot walking away unhurt. The Whirlwinds were replaced by the Hawker Typhoon soonly after.
That way, the No.263 squadron became the very last one to be equipped with the Whirlwind, flying its last mission on 29th November 1943, converting them to the Hawker Typhoon in December that year. On 1st January 1944 the Whirlwind was declared obsolete with the remaining serviceable aircraft being transferred to the No.18 Maintenance Unit which scrapped most of them for serviceable parts and repairing only those which were in near-flyable condition.
One Whirlwind was bought by the US Navy in 1942 and was used also by Grumman for testing purposes. There are no pictures of it, but apparently it was sent to NAS Pensacola in Florida and saw various colour schemes between 1942 and 1944 when it was scrapped. As there aren't no pics the drawing should be considered as speculative.
There were proposals to equip the Whirlwind with a radar, which were discarded, just like the ones to equip the Whirlwind with Rolls-Royce Merlin 76/77 engines, which were also discarded due to the development of the Westland Welkin.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Whirlwind_(fighter)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._137_Squadron_RAF
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._263_Squadron_RAF
4. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/airfixtributeforum/airfix-1-72-westland-whirlwind-i-02064-a50096-t1068-s75.html
5. https://sites.google.com/site/72ndscaleaircraft/home/comparison-articles-menu/westland-whirlwind-comparison
6. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Westland Whirlwind, part one

The Westland Whirlwind was a British twin-engined heavy fighter, developed by Westland Aircraft which became the first single-seat, twin-engined canon-armed fighter of the Royal Air Force.
Back in 1938, when it flew for the first time, it was one of the fastest combat aircraft of the world and with its four 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 autocannons placed in the nose, one of the most heavily armed.
Due to problems with the Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines, the project was delayed and therefore few of them were manufactured.
It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Peregrine I engines, twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled Vee engine which delivered 885hp of power, which were a development of the Rolls-Royce Kestrel K.26. The first prototype, which flew for the first time on 11th October 1938, was initially equipped with long exhaust ducts that were channelled through the wings and fuel tanks exiting at the wing's trailing edge. That configuration was quickly changed to a more conventional one after almost losing control when one of the exhaust ducts broke and heat-fractured an aileron control rod.
After the first flight of the prototype, it was passed on to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at the end of the year to perform more tests on it at RAF Martlesham Heath. It showed excellent handling characteristics and proved easy to fly at any speed. The only flaw was the inadequate directional control during take-off which required an increased rudder area above the tailplane.
The Whirlwind was quite small, just a little bigger than the Hawker Hurricane, but smaller in frontal area. The landing gear was fully retractable and the entire aircraft was very "clean" with very few openings and protuberances. Radiators were placed in the leading edge on the inner wings rather than below the engines, as it was the unwritten rule for the British fighters of the time. Thanks to its streamlined profile, the aircraft achieved the speed of 360mph (580km/h), the same as the latest single-engined fighters of the time. It had short range, under 300 milles (480km) making it marginal for escort duties and, due to delays in the Peregrine engines, it wasn't until June 1940 that its manufacturation process began.
By late 1940 the Supermarine Spitfire was scheduled to mount 20mm cannons, so the "cannon-armed" requirement was already being met at that time and, as the RAF Bomber Command switched to night flying, the role of escort fighters was becoming marginal. The RAF requirements for a twin-engined fighter were range and carrying capacity to allow the radar apparatus of the time to be carried and, the Bristol Beaufighter meet those requirements and even better than the Whirlwind.
An initial production order for 200 aircraft was placed in January 1939 followed by a second order of another 200 with a planned schedule of September 1940. Due to the big amount of orders and, as Westland's factory couldn't cope with such big amount of production, it was suggested to produce the aircraft in other factories, however it was decided that it was better to mass-manufacture the Spitfire.
Despite Whirlwind's performance, production ended in January 1942 after 112 production Mk.I types and two prototypes were made. Rolls-Royce needed to concentrate in the Merlin and troubled Vulture engines rather than the Peregrine engine. As Westland was aware that its design had been built around the Peregrine, and, any change would require a major redesign, Westland campaigned for an improved Mk.II version which would be powered by an improved Peregrine which could deliver 1010hp of power. However, that proposal was cancelled when Rolls-Royce ceased the production of the Peregrine engine. Furthermore, building a Whirlwind consumed three time as much alloy as a Spitfire.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Whirlwind_(fighter)
2. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/70560
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters