World War Two
The
Whirlwind was the UK's first
cannon-armed fighter and
faster than many other
British aircraft at the time
but was troubled by the
inability of Rolls-Royce to
produce the engines. The
Lysander army co-operation
aircraft was displaced for
reconnaissance as too
vulnerable but found favour
for specialist missions into
occupied Europe carrying
agents. Westland tendered
designs for new aircraft
during the war but only the
Welkin was accepted. The
Welkin was a twin-engine
high altitude design to
intercept attempts by
high-flying German bombers
to attack Britain. When the
threat never appeared
production was limited.
For
much of the war their
factories were used to build
Supermarine Spitfires, after
the Supermarine factory in
Southampton was bombed out
of action during the Battle
of Britain; indeed Westlands
built more Spitfires than
any other manufacturer.
Westland would then go on to
be the major designers of
the Supermarine Seafire, a
navalised conversion of the
Spitfire
Post War Success
The
Westland Wyvern was a
post-war design of
carrier-based strike-fighter
for the Fleet Air Arm
serving up to 1958.
Post-war the company decided
to get out of fixed-wing
aircraft and concentrate
solely on helicopters under
a licensing agreement with
Sikorsky. This upset W.E.W.
Petter, the chief designer,
who left to form a new
aircraft division at English
Electric that would go on to
be very successful.
Production started with the
Sikorsky S-51 flying for the
first time in 1948 and as
the Westland-Sikorksy
Dragonfly entering service
with the Royal Navy and RAF
from 1950. Westland
developed an improved
version the Widgeon which
was not a great success.
Success with the Dragonfly
was repeated with the
Sikorsky S-55 which became
the Whirlwind, and a
re-engined Sikorsky S-58 in
both turboshaft and turbine
engine powered designs as
the Wessex.
In
1952 Westland decided on
three helicopter designs for
possible development:
-
The
W-80
which was a 24 passenger
short range medium lift
helicopter with fixed
landing gear and similar
to the future Westland
Commando in appearance.
-
The
W-81,
a high speed,
streamlined 32-passenger
helicopter, with
retractable landing gear
and a top speed of 150
miles per hour
(240 km/h). Similar to
many modern helicopters
of today it had twin
turbine engines mounted
on the fuselage.
-
The
W-85.
A very large helicopter
that could lift 15 tons
(100 soldiers or their
equivalent) in the
military version.
It was so big that that
jeeps and medium
artillery could be
parked side by side
internally. Loading and
unloading was to be
accomplished through a
clam shell door on the
nose and a retractable
ramp in the rear. Power
would be from blade tip
system, where at the
ends of each of the
three massive rotor
blades was a streamline
pod, with two turbojet
engines mounted in each
pod.
None of the three Westland
helicopter, nor the even
larger (200 ft (61 m) rotor
diameter)
W-90
suggested for development in
1952 advanced further than
the paper study.
Westland did progress as a
private venture a large
space-frame cargo helicopter
design using a Sikorksy
rotor head - the Westland
Westminster - but this was
dropped later in favour of
the government funded Fairey
Rotodyne.
Forced Mergers
The
chairmanship of Eric
Mensforth from 1953–1968
marked the start of the
transition. From 1959–1961
the British government
forced the consolidation of
20 or so British aviation
firms into three larger
groups with the threat of
withheld contracts and the
lure of project funding.
While the majority of
fixed-wing aircraft design
and construction lie in the
British Aircraft Corporation
and the Hawker Siddeley
Group the helicopter
divisions of Bristol, Fairey
and Saunders-Roe (with their
hovercraft) were merged with
Westland to form Westland
Helicopters in 1961.
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