Merlin for Whirlwind

What would the Westland whirlwind have become if it had been fitted with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines from the beggining of it's developement?
 
They did put Merlins onto a Whirlwind airframe, it was the Welkin high altitude fighter. Because of the greater weight of the engines it had to have a much larger wing area and all of that extra weight meant it wasn't significantly faster than the Whirlwind and certainly less maneuverable.
 
I agree, it would be easier to get the Perigrine developed than to jam Merlins into the Whirlwind. RR had that X shaped engine which turned out to be a dud, get rid of that early and throw some resources at the Perigrine and bingo, you have the long range fighter needed in 1941.
 
I'm not sure why it would have been so difficult to push merlins into the whirlwind. The merlin weighed about 200lb more, so its not a vast difference. Maybe the airframe couldnt handle in increased power.
 
I'm not sure why it would have been so difficult to push merlins into the whirlwind. The merlin weighed about 200lb more, so its not a vast difference. Maybe the airframe couldnt handle in increased power.

It weighed over 200 Kilograms more, that's adding nearly half a ton with two engines then there's the extra weight of the additional wing area and strengthening to take the extra power. The Welkin weighed in at nearly twice as much as the Whirlwind, the improvement in performance was hardly worth the effort when there were other aircraft in service to carry out the role. As Riain said dropping the problematic 24 cylinder engine and making the lightweight Peregrine work would have been a far better option.
 
Last edited:
It weighed over 200 Kilograms more, that's adding nearly half a ton with two engines then there's the extra weight of the additional wing area and strengthening to take the extra power. The Welkin weighed in at nearly twice as much as the Whirlwind, the improvement in performance was hardly worth the effort when there were other aircraft in service to carry out the role. As Riain said dropping the problematic 24 cylinder engine and making the lightweight Peregrine work would have been a far better option.

The wiki data page gives it as 200 pounds, not kilos, more.
And the Welkin was designed as a specific high altitude plane, so that istnt a very useful comparison.

I dont see why it would have been worth developing the Peregrine for just one plane.
 
The Peregrine was designed to be Rolls Royce next generation engine in that size category, and the vulture, which was aessentially two Peregriens working together, as the next generation in the larger one. The RAF (and the Allies), were incredibly lucky that the Merlin had so much "design space" for potential enhancement, very few other aircraft designs in this era could be incrementally updated for a decade without falling behind.
 

Markus

Banned
What would the Westland whirlwind have become if it had been fitted with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines from the beggining of it's developement?

Even if it works, were there enough Merlins for Spitfire, Hurricane and Whirlwind?
 
The wiki data page gives it as 200 pounds, not kilos, more.
And the Welkin was designed as a specific high altitude plane, so that isn't a very useful comparison.

I dont see why it would have been worth developing the Peregrine for just one plane.

RR Merlin used in the Welkin weighed 1,645lb(746Kg) whereas the RR Peregrine was 1,140lb(517Kg). The Welkin was designed for high altitude operations but nevertheless it was Petter's evolution of the Whirlwind and even with all of the modifications for high altitude it was still essentially a Merlin engined Whirlwind.
 
Top