Whirlwind Fighter Project

Thursday, 1 January 2015

January Newsletter

Chris Hayward

January Newsletter.

Happy New Year

Welcome to the first issue of 2015.

Another year is upon us and the project is still moving ahead very slowly. With all the preliminary work done on the rear fuselage we are all hoping that we can finally start to put some of the metal structure together, it has been a long time coming but it will be worth it in the end. I would like to thank all those who gave us help through out last year, whether it was financial, parts or searching for information it all goes into the pot and adds to what we need to finish off our Pride of Yeovil.

Rene tells me that Gunnar has now sent him the plans for the main undercarriage and that he will start the CAD drawings of these in the new year.

We have a lot going on this year what with Westlands 100th anniversary and also our second AGM the time and place of which I will let you all know when I have sorted it out.

Whirlwind Stories

P7062

28th of June 1941 she was delivered to 39MU at Colerne. On the 16th of the following month she moved to the Starveall Farm disposal, on the 20th of September she joined 263 Squadron at Charmey Down, 6 days later she was moved to 137 Squadron who were also at the same Airfield.
On the 7th of January 1942 she suffered an accident at Coltishall in which her pilot Jack Maddocks was injured. She was then sent to Westlands for repair after wads she went to 18 MU at Dumfries and on the 18th of July 1942 she joined 263 Squadron at Angle and carried he code as above.
In February 1943 she crashed near Chisledon, Wiltshire. Her pilot Frank Hicks was killed.

Operational hours were 63:20

Parts

Matt has been working on the aerial and has now given it a coat of paint to bring it back from the sad state on the left, it now looks much better and is ready to be fitted.

P/O Roy Fredrick Ferdinand

G-AGOI revisited

Pilot Officer Roy Fredrick Ferdinand

He was born in West Ham London on the 10th of May 1920 and worked for Marylebone Council in their Audit office. He was awarded his wings on the 4th of April 1940 while at No 6 Flight Training School. Before he converted to the Whirlwind with 263 Squadron he had already built up 28 Ops on Hurricanes. Unfortunately he was killed at the young age of 21 while on approach to land at Filton while flying P7045 his aircraft stalled from 50 feet and burst into flames on impact.

Another picture of P7048 ( G-AGOI ). one of the men in this photo is according to Dave Gibbings,

Fred Ballam, who to those interested in Westland Aircraft was a mine of information on many of the Companies Aircraft. He was even up to correcting some of the drawings of the Whirlwind as created by the late Mike Keep. Fred passed away a few years ago.

The above drawing was rescued from the Web so I can only assume that it is OK to post it here.

Once a month I have been running a featured Whirlwind on our Facebook page, last month it was the turn of P7055 'Bellows Argentina No1' because of that I have received from Ricardo Martin Lezon the Air Movement Card for the aircraft. Martin who lives in Argentina has an interest in the Bellows Aircraft.

Many Thanks to Ricardo for the above two photos.

Just to bring some light entertainment to this months issue, while searching the web for other information I came across this photo, now someone has been having a bit of fun with Photoshop and have chosen a Whirlwind for part of the subject, there must be a story behind it as the logo underneath the canopy says 'Broken Promise' we can only speculate as to the meaning behind this picture.

One of the other search areas that we are looking at for information are the Whirlwind crash sites in St Brelades Bay in Jersey.
There are two Whirlwinds that were shot down on December the 7th 1942 P6987 and P7105 both are known to be in the area, I have been trying to find some contact details for Tony Tittering who is a local diver and lives on Jersey.
I am told that he specialises in wrecks from WW2 if anyone out there can help put us in contact with Tony we would be very grateful.

Wanted

Still looking for fuel Gauges

Can you help

Shop

These items are still available from the shop for the latest prices please go to our Web Shop, Paypal is now available on all items

Paypal now available on this item

The Whirlwind Fighter Project is a member of the BAPC

Contact details.....chris-hayward@outlook.com

Monday, 1 December 2014

Chris Hayward

December Newsletter

At last things are looking up for the shop, all the merchandise is all in one place and in the safe hands of Rob Bowater. We also now have Paypal working correctly so if any one wants to order goodies for Christmas there is still time, you will find a list of some of the items at the end of this issue.

A request for charity status has been submitted to HMR&C at long last, and we await their reply hopefully this will open up further avenues for us regarding funding and also for us to gain from gift aid.

Matt has managed to get hold of an aerial for the project, it does require a bit of work as would be expected but at least it is the right type.

Further information is still being gathered for the Whirlwind documentary which is being produced by Jim Munro, both Eric Brown and the late Peter Twiss both had first hand knowledge of the Whirly. Peter Twiss flew P6994 during its visit to the US and some confusion surrounds its fate it was believed to have been scrapped at NAS Pensacola.. The Peregrines were removed after evaluation and one of them is supposed to have powered the base commander's powerboat. But further information is hard to come by. So if any one out there has any further knowledge please contact Jim at the email address below.

MacDeutsch Films, Henley-on-Thames U.K.

EMail: RJamesMunro@GMail.com

Rene has been doing a lot of CAD work on the tail wheel, he has now been able to produce an image that shows it as it is, he was also able to produce an animation that showed how the retract system worked

Whirly Stories

Copyright Richard J. Caruana

30th of December 1940 she was sent to 30MU at Dumfries and on the 13th of February she was sent to 263 Squadron who at that time were based at Exeter at that point she was given the code of HE-S.

She was damaged during an air raid in March of 1941 at St Eval and was sent to Westland in May of the same year.

She joined 137 Squadron in July of 1942 at Matlaske and coded SF-A. On the 20th of December she collided with a pole at Manston. She finally crash landed at Manston during June 43 while being flown by John Barclay after suffering battle damage.

Operational hours 53:40

Thanks to Rob Bowater for the above information from his book.

Copies of Rob's book can be obtained direct from him at

rob.bowater@virginmedia.com

Those of you that read the first newsletter may remember that when I first became interested in the Whirlwind I would go of to Kew and browse through the ORB of both Squadron's with the intent of writing a book on this fascinating aircraft unfortunately life became more complicated and the project got shelved although I kept what I did, after all pounding words out on an old typewriter I wasn't going to throw them away

With the renewed interest in the Whirlwind and some great books now out on the subject there is no way that I was going to be able to match those avenues of research so please find below my small offering to the Whirlwind from 1981.

Whirlwind book

137 Squadron

This was the second of the two Whirlwind Squadrons and was ordered to form at Colerne on the 29^th of September 1941, under Fighter Command signal Q109 of the 12^th of September the same year. Squadron leader Sample DFC was to be in charge , a little later the site of formation was changed to Charmy Down to replace 125 Squadron.

On the 22^nd of September F/LT J S Hughes and S/pilot D ST.J Jowitt were posted from 263 Squadron to give some experience to the new Squadron. Orders were then sent out to the various maintenance units for the delivery of 18 Whirlwinds. On the 28^th F/LT P Hogan was posted as Adjutant from RAF Ercall he arrived at 137 the following day.

On the 30^th of September the strength of the squadron consisted of, 6 officers, 1 S/GT Pilot, 12 senior NCO’s and 165 other ranks.

Due to the severe lack of facilities and equipment the maintenance and inspection of the Whirlwinds was carried out at RAF Filton by part of 137’s maintenance flight which was posted there. Flying to the end of the month consisted of transport flights to and from Filton and training flights by S/L Sample who had not flown Whirlwinds before, air firing tests were also carried out at Sand Bay near Bristol. With all serviceable Whirlwinds so tested the number of flying hours totaled 171. By this time pilot strength had increased from 3 on the 30^th of September to 15 on the 19^th of October with 6 Officers and 9 Sergeants all from 263 Squadron.

By the 20^th of October there were a total of 18 aircraft 12 of which were operational, of the 15 pilots 8 were also operational and the 7 others were undergoing intensive training which included air to sea practise firing.

The Squadron’s first operational sorti was carried out on the 24^th of October when at 13:10hrs S/Lr Sample and F/O Clark flew to the Squadrons forward base at Predannack in Cornwall, they were followed at 13:15hrs by Sgt Haggberg who was to be the reserve pilot. On reaching Predannack the aircraft were refuelled.

The 2 aircraft P7053 and P7050 left the station at 15:00hrs their objective being the railway sidings at Landernau near Brest and the trains of fuel containers which were there. They crossed the French coast at 15:35hrs at a height of 5 to 6 hundred feet, the visibility was about 10 miles and cloud cover was about 4/10’s at 600 feet.

Both Pilots attacked the sidings together but found that the containers had been moved. S/L sample fired on some coal trucks which started to smoke, at the same time F/O Clark attacked a large Locomotive and trucks the shells from his four 20mm cannons leaving the train enveloped in steam.

All the time the Whirlwinds were over France there had been no opposition from either air of ground forces although two unidentified aircraft were seen in the neighborhood of Breast, flying in a north westerly direction. Both Whirlwinds returned safely to Predannack at 16:15hrs.

The next sorti took place two days later, this was another attack on a goods yard but this time it was Landivisian in North West France that was the target. F/LT Hughes and Sgt Robertson were to carry out the mission and left the station at 12:50hrs heading for Predannack, this time it was Sgt Peskett in reserve. Forward base was reached at 13:35hrs with both aircraft taking of again at 14:30hrs for the target. After an uneventful flight across the channel, landfall was made four miles west of D’Ile De Batz and Landivisian was reached at 15:02hrs, a low level attack was made on a train of covered trucks at a height of 150ft and a second pass made at 400ft, both pilots reported seeing hits on the train and some smoke was also seen. They then turned their attention to a wireless mast five miles to the north this was also believed to have been damaged. Again as during the previous operation no air of ground opposition had been encountered. On their return to forward base they made landfall over Lizard Point at 15:45hrs. Unfortunately F/LT Hughes’s Whirlwind burst it’s tail wheel on landing it was decieded that F/LT Hughes would take Sgt’s Pesketts aircraft back to Charmy down the Sergeant would then re-join his Squadron when the Whirlwind was repaired..

Shop Talk

As I mentioned earlier the shop is now up at running and here are some of the items that we have for sale.

For further items please check out our web Shop

Unframed prints of the prototype Whirlwind from a painting by Dave Gibbings with the facsimile signatures of Petter, Penrose and Daveport

£25.00 including P&P

There is also an unsigned version available for £20.00 including P&P

Whirlwind T Shirts now only available in M,L and XL although stock of the M and XL are limited.

£10.00 plus P&P

Whirlwind Base ball caps are also available in one size fits all

£9.00 plus P&P

Great wooden models of the Whirlwind are also available

£60.00 plus P&P

Whirlwind Mug

£6.00 plus P&P

Contact details chris-hayward@outlook.com

The Whirlwind Fighter Project is a member of the British Aviation Preservation Council.

Saturday, 1 November 2014

Chris Hayward

Welcome to the newsletter for November.

Again apologies to those waiting for items from the shop, although we are taking orders its taking us a while to get them dispatched, if you are still waiting please contact me direct on the email address at the end of this issue if you haven't done so already

One of the problems with doing a newsletter on what is rather a limited subject is that its very easy to run out of things to say, having said that if you dig a little deeper it is surprising what you can find, apart from many Whirlwinds being donated by organisations like the Fellowship of the Bellows both Squadrons had their fair share of Commonwealth pilots not only from Canada and Australia but also from India in this issue I will try to shed some light on who these men were.

P/o Dattatreva Anant Samant


P/o Dattatreya Anant Samant

P/o Samant joined 137 Squadron on the 21/1/42 and served with the Squadron until 9/10/42 when he was transferred to 263 Squadron he stayed with them till 18/1/43.
Nicknamed Sammy he was born in Bombay ( now Mumbai), at wars end he got a job with Indian Airlines as Area Manager. Here he can be seen in the cockpit of P7121.(see Whirlwind Stories below)

Sgt Sayanapuram Duraiswamy Thyagarajan


Sgt S D Thyagarjan (Tiger or Billy)

Sgt Thyagarjan served with 236 Squadron from 20/10/42 till 25/5/43 after which he moved on to Typhoons when 263 also changed aircraft. Originally from Pondicherry in India he was killed in action on the 25/8/44 after his Typhoon was hit by flack he attempted to make a forced landing but hit some trees, his aircraft flipped over and blew up.

Sgt S D Thyagarjan next to a Typhoon of 263 Squadron.


Tigers headstone

The church cemetery in the village of La Lande St. Léger in Normandy.
His resting place is unique in many respects, his gravestone is uncommon because it has an inscription in three languages — Hindi, English and French. And his burial spot, near the south wall and the small entrance gate, is the only serviceman’s grave in the cemetery.

Pondicherry is now known as Puducherry in the Tamil region of India.

Thanks to DAVID MCMAHON for some of the above text.

Sgt O Ramamurthy


Sgt O Ramamurthy

Also known as the Maharajah of Strawberry Jampot.

Although posted to 263 Squadron he was non operational, he was posted to 286 Squadron and finally 1624 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation flight.

Any Further information on him would be welcome.

The last survivor.


Copyright Westland Aircraft.

P7048 during her time with Westland as the Company plane

The dismantling of P7048 on the Westland site during 1951, you can see the radio hatch in the starboard side also the supporting frame work for the nose cannons, the full length fowler flap system and the pilots access ladder on the port side.


From the WWW origin unknown

P7048 in better times up where she belonged. (note lack of forward guns)

She was sent to 39MU on the 27th of May 1941, then joined 137 Squadron on the 8th of April 42 her tail wheel collapsed after hitting a drain at Matlaske. On the 17th of April 42 she was damaged by flack. She was sent to Westland for repair who retained her. She was sold to Westland on the 29th of March 1945.

Operational hours 123:25

Whirlwind Stories

Copyright Richard J Caruana.

P7121

Bellows Argentina No 7

Taken on charge by 39 MU on or about the 8th of December 1941. on the 6th of Feb 42 she was taken on charge by 137 Squadron at Matlaske as SF-C, on the 27th of Feb 42 she was damaged and again on 24th of May when she crashed.
On the 16 of April 43 she crashed again this time at Manston during dive bombing practice killing F/O John Hadlow.

Operational hours 90:40 Total flying hours 325:35.

Many thanks must go to Rob Bowater for the use of his fascinating book on 137 and 263 Squadron without which I could be well and truly stumped for information.

Also to Niall Corduroy and his book Whirlwind Westlands Enigmatic Fighter.

And to Richard J Caruana for the use of his profiles.

Copies of Robs book can be purchased direct on.

rob.bowater@virginmedia.com

Contact details.

chris-hayward@outlook.com

Copyright Whirlwind Fighter Project 2011/2014