But really, the only thing I want to change on the Whirlwind is its entry into service date. So we need to make changes to its development path and timing. Do that, and we'll have a half dozen squadrons in service by the BoF.
If we stick with the Peregrine engines, they, along with all the other flight components, were provided to Westlands by May 1938. The wings of the first prototypes, complete with engines, fuel tanks, radiators etc., were completed in July.
In June 1938 the ACAS (Sholto-Douglas at the time) told Freeman that deliveries of the Whirlwind might start by June 1940, so just barely in time to begin its induction into service for the Battle of Britain. Douglas said at the time that this seemed
'...an unnecessarily long time to produce an aircraft designed early in 1936' and he may have had a point. The question is how could this timeline be speeded up?
We would need to reduce the delays that kept creeping in as the aircraft was developed. We could save some time by NOT adopting the Exactor throttle controls, there must have been a reason these replaced the original mechanical linkages but I do not know what they were and maybe we could do better.
The next delay was a failure in the casting of the inboard wall of one of the fuel tanks, this was finally rectified at the end of August, because the entire wing had to be dis-assembled, but we've still got more than a year until the war begins.
Etc. etc. and this is before we begin to deal with the problems I listed a while back that dogged the aircraft's entry into service.
There were arguments for involving another company in Whirlwind production. Westland was based at Yeovil, frankly, in the middle of nowhere. It had a limited recruitment area and that was largely agricultural.
Yeovil today:
There were few opportunities to sub-contract the manufacture of components to other companies. In August 1938 Westland had a productive work force of just 726, a fifth of Bristol's, and was sub-contracting only 13% of the man hours involved in Lysander production. Maybe some improvements could be made here?
The issue is that the Air Ministry had suffered a serious loss of Spitfire production because Supermarine had made so many changes after sub-contracting began. The Ministry was keen to avoid such a failure and recommended that other companies should only be involved AFTER Westland could produce final production drawings, which meant after the company itself began producing the aircraft.
On the bright side, there were changes in the ownership of Westland at the end of 1938, and this led, theoretically at least, to an increase in resources. Westland also acquired the old Petters engine factory after that business was sold, so they had more room too.
Of course, these are just some of the issues affecting the entry into production of a new aircraft in the boring real world and I would be interested to know how we might have got the Whirlwind into several Fighter Command squadrons by the summer of 1940 in an alternate universe, assuming we can overcome the next hurdle...Dowding didn't want it, but maybe we could convince him by improving the service ceiling and altitude performance? That's something that needs to be done between late 1938 and mid 1940, so time is of the essence!
Anyway, answers and suggestions on a postcard to the usual address. Anyone suggesting a Merlin powered version will be sent to see the Headmaster
