Westland Whirlwind #3

Hi all, along with the Do335, which is progressing slowly, I have taken on another pet model project a 74" Whirlwind, plan by Harold Osborne, it will be E.P. powered and the battery will be in the nose, Laser Services to complete their offering so straight to US and purchased a short kit, really good "cut" this mob and the wood is first class
The plan details 1/8" balsa for most of the sizes, but aft of the C/G I got them to cut this down to the ribs to 1/16 and fuz formers to 3/32.... which they did, ...also they supplied the origonal sizes, at no extra cost......now that's service
Forward of the wing I will mould the nacelles cowling out of acrylic sheet, while waiting for the kit I built up dummy nacelles to mould over

I have started on the tailplane, progress so far

The U/C will be Elite 100deg movement, with H/K 8mm oloe's, as yo can see by the pic

The U/C will be Elite 100deg movement, with H/K 8mm oloe's, as yo can see by the pic

Very clever with the retracts young man.
The whirlwind is one of those marmite aircraft to me.
but i t looks to be a lovely project.

After I removed the 1/2 fus from the plan, it was time to add all the interior bits, cables, tail wheel, servo locations, mounts. because the retract tail wheel needs to be steered via a cable, the drive needs be located in the forward area, otherwise it will be opersite to the rudder...... lots of brain cogs turning
all of this done before the other side planking is laid on

Looks good C'man and thanks for starting the thread, it's given me a kick to get mine going again -

www.aeromodellers.co.uk/forum/free-fligh...build?start=45#65609

The Whirlwind has always been a favourite of mine ever since I was given a 1/72 Airfix model of it as a kid. It's a great shame it never went into service with a couple of Merlins on the wings! It's even a bigger shame that there isn't one left...and don't talk to me about the Hornet, either.

On the other hand, full marks to the Whirlwind Fighter Project - a team of enthusiasts who are trying to get a replica together for static display;

www.whirlwindfighterproject.org/

model has progressed a bit since the last entry, ....the fuz has been planked and the nacelle 1/2 has also been done, with the fin sheeted, I glued a shelf onto the fuz, along the datum line, so as to sit an incidence meter on it, to align the tailplane at the correct level ....0







deg

I've had a computer hick up, .....all good now I think
With that part put aside, the nacelles was the next bits to tackle. because I wanted the rear of the nacelle to be attached to the flaps, I had to work out how to hinge them, rotating down and out, if the full size flaps had a verticle line it would be easy ...,but the line angles forward from the bottom up, that rotation increases the length of the nacelle at that line, there was no info on the web, so I had to invent something that would do it.... ummm I tried a few options and came up with this

Earlier on I fitted the retract into the nacelle, works out ok

Since that last pic was submitted, I have raised the U/C mount plate by 14mm to give the wheel a bit more clearance
Today I've fitted in the flap servo inside the nacelle ( 10kg standard one ) forward of the C/G, driving the nacelle rear out.
Pics later

here's some pics of the wing build and the nacelle mechanics.
I've never built a wing upside before, in all of the 50 odd yrs, but it is progressing, lots of ribs to fit, centre section so far, according to the plan the top of the wing is flat, and the bottom tapers up to it, W1 is about 28mm thick and W23 is 12mm. so there is quite a taper

More progress and pic's





Now the next thing is to glue that large flap onto the 2 nacelle rears
Cheers
Barry

Out of curiosity I looked at some pics of the Whirlwind's flaps as I had not realised they pivoted about the base of each nacelle.

It also had a built in telescopic ladder that dropped down on the port side!
I knew it had leading edge intakes for the radiators but had not realised they were actually mounted behind the spar so the air actually passed right through the wing (and spar!) and exhausted via a movable section above the flap as seen is this picture.

When I first saw this I originally thought it was some sort of platform for aircraft maintenance.