1/6 Westland Whirlwind

[Timo Starkloff]

Balsa strips too long are best removed with a fine Japanese saw.

[Timo Starkloff]

Looking good already

[Timo Starkloff]

After cleaning and sanding of the complete fuselage to get a smooth surface, I applied the first panels of 3mm balsa. I always add the same part on left and right side to prevent a bent fuselage.

The spacing between plywood frames and balsa strips is bigger than on my other models of same size. I want to get a light fuselage because of the center of gravity far to the front. But the fuselage should be still strong enough, the Whirlwind has a huge diameter all way to the tail.The fuselage of most other planes gets quiet thin to the tail.

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 04/11/2018 20:48:31

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 04/11/2018 20:49:52

[Dave Cooper 3]

Hello Timo - you are making great progress ! I read Harold Penrose's biography many years ago....did you know that he designed his own glider ? There was a Nexus /Traplet plan available at one time. I was interested in building it as a future project (I like unusual scale gliders for slope soaring).

A couple of questions if you don't mind :-

1. Where did you get the 'Japanese Saw' ? It looks really useful. I haven't seen one advertised by anyone in the UK.

2. What radio are you planning to use ? Will there be a special arrangement to synchronise the motors /props to resolve any adverse yaw tendency ? Special ESC(s) linked to micro-controllers ?

Looking forward to seeing a possible video of the early flights maybe...

Dave

[Timo Starkloff]

Hello David, thanks for your comment. It’s really interesting that Harald Penrose enjoyed gliding and flying with ultra light planes although he was quiet used to high powered fighter and jet aircraft.

 

1. I got the saw as a present from a friend. It’s very sharp and cuts through soft balsa and hard aircraft plywood. It’s very useful for cutting out accumulator hatches or ailerons and flaps.

Here’s a link to the Japanese saw:

http://shop.vth.de/kataba-restauro-zugsage.html

 

2. I use Jeti receivers on my models. There will be no synchronisation of motors. I never had any problems on electric powered twin engine models. And the Whirlwind should be no critical plane concerning on side engine failure due to nacelles near to the fuselage and a huge rudder (a really bad example is the Henschel 129 with short fuselage, small rudder, swept forward wing, triangular fuselage). Due to my experience with twins powered by combustion engines you don’t need the same rpms, your safe as long as they are just running. Even if not, in many cases it took a while to find out which engine stopped. Either you can fly further or you shut down the remaining one.

From the history: during the development of the Whirlwind they compared engines running in the same and opposite direction. They found no difference in flight characteristics and kept the same rotation engines in both nacelles. Something that was not possible on the P-38 Lightning.

 

The most interesting part of the Whirlwind will be the effect of high elevator position and how slow landings could be made. The elevator is above the air stream of propellers and the original had to land faster because of that. That’s also my experience with other models of that configuration.

 

It is a long way to the first flights but I will take a video for sure

 

Timo

[Timo Starkloff]

I apply bigger balsa sheets on fuselage areas with a curvature in one direction (method explained below). I use the traditional but more time consuming way of long thin balsa strips only for fuselage areas which are bent in two directions (like the nose).

The balsa is softened with water and a sponge.

The balsa plate can be bend afterwards with little force before applying it to the fuselage.

I use a ball pen for making the cutting marks in the middle of frames and strips, it's even working on a wet surface.

I always use much white glue to get a safe connection. Weight is no problem since the glue gets quiet light after drying.

The balsa plate is securly fixed on one side first.

Afterwards the other three sides are fixed with lots of needles. More are better because the balsa will try to get back to the original flat shape. Also glue is creeping into the wood along the needle and the adhesive joint will be stronger (a bit like riveting).

Open grooves are closed with glue.

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 05/11/2018 20:32:01

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 05/11/2018 20:32:29

[Timo Starkloff]

Placing the next balsa parts is my daily job after coming home from work

Yesterday I started planking the rounded nose with thin balsa stripes.

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 07/11/2018 20:12:36

[Adrian Smith 1]

A cracking build Timo and clearly requires a lot of patience and great skill. Something that has my utmost admiration!

[Timo Starkloff]

Thanks Adrian. I like that way for building models. It's quiet satisfying to see the model grow every day a little bit.

Slowly the fuselage gets covered and I also started further building on the tail. The wing/fuselage joint is something interesting from the designer Petter. Usual in those days was a rounded fillet. He found an aerodynamic better solution for the combination of a round fuselage and a wing on the low position which is used until today for example for jet airliners.

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 11/11/2018 12:13:10

[Timo Starkloff]

The fuselage is nearly covered now, except the part around the tail wheel which has to be installed first.

[Timo Starkloff]

I had to order more balsa for the Whirlwind and future models. Normally I choose light selection, which is more expensive but much lighter. I started that on my 1/12 aircombat contest models and use it also on weight critical bigger models.

I made drawings for the nose parts (no red one, although Christmas is around the corner . Took me a whole evening, since I had to find the correct position of the cannons. I had a good side view, but had to search my drawings and pictures for a good front view. I'm not sure how many details I will add to the finished model, but applying the cannon holes later would be a huge effort.

[Timo Starkloff]

Looks a bit like a Christmas tree

[Timo Starkloff]

After sanding the fuselage look improved a lot!

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 25/11/2018 10:57:43

[Ron Gray]

Excellent work as usual Timo, I just love the amount of pins you use!

[Timo Starkloff]

Really satisfying to see the result of long planning

Sometimes it really takes a few minutes to get all pins out before working further on the model. But much better than a displaced part.

[Timo Starkloff]

I was also busy during November with drawing the wing. I need that attached to the fuselage before glueing the tail in place.

I always start with some basic drawings in the CAD, placing the wing spar, ribs and servos to get an early idea of difficult parts. The major decision concerning the Whirlwind was where to divide the 230 cm long wing: centre, beneath the nacelles or just the outer wing panels. Decision was last one. I also thought about the type of flap because the original one is just too complicated, I always try to design plans for beginners or average skilled model builders. Decision was for the split flap. I will have a big flap inbetween the nacelles and two small ones outside. That should be easy to build and represent a nearly scale look.. Original flaps opened just a bit for the start and then look 100% like split flaps. And on landing youonly see the front of the plane and the most important thing is then to have this huge central flap.

[Timo Starkloff]

The drawing above was made two years ago. Due to progress on tail and fuselage and partly the nacelles, I had to concentrate about the wing again. You should have an idea first before you start draings. CAD is a fine thing but it doesn't solve your problems or makes suggestions. Every plane is unique in certain details and I always try to find at least a good solution. Models which are not thought until the end very often present problems and delays during building.

When I'm sure about the basic design, I start thinking further about the parts. A simple pen and sheet are most helpful to save ideas.

[Timo Starkloff]

Bringing those ideas to the CAD drawing quickly shows what works and what not. Sometimes there is not enough place, other parts turn out to be too complicated. The easy solutions are the most difficult to find!

Except some minor small parts, this is the actual wing design and all parts to build that wing. Building will start this week

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 02/12/2018 18:18:26

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 02/12/2018 18:18:58

[Martyn K]

That is looking superb Timo. Wonderful craftmanship.

Will the plans be made available later?

Martyn

[Chris Freeman 3]

Great work, I love the shape. They fly well, I had one that I built from the Peter Wilson plan and it had great performance. A very under rated aircraft.

[Timo Starkloff]

Hello Martyn, I will make a plan for the Whirlwind, although it has to prove good flying characteristics first. I like to fill the gaps where plans for certain models are missing. It just takes a long time to get a plan finished. The real work always starts when the plane is finished. This time I try to update the parts of the plan during building, as soon as I find something to improve.

Hello Chris, good to hear that Do you have any pictures of your Whirlwind? I only found a few videos of Whirlwinds. I have seen 1/12 scale aircombat models flying, but they got a good hand start of course. The bigger models on the videos with a landing gear seem to have a good directional stability during start, just like the original.

Timo

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 11/12/2018 19:45:25

[Timo Starkloff]

I'm still preparing parts for the wing which means cutting many ribs. And certain parts have to be reinforced before I can really start building the wing.

Timo

Edited By Timo Starkloff on 11/12/2018 19:47:59

[Chris Freeman 3]

Hi Timo

No pictures of the Whirlwind, one of the few aircraft that I do not have a picture of. I lost the airframe and the pictures in a house fire 5 years ago. Flying was a treat and much easier than I expected, Take offs and landings were quite easy and the shape was great in the air. I actually won a prize with it at one of our larger scale events in South Africa. It was for the most unusual aircraft.

Chris

[Timo Starkloff]

Sorry to hear that about your house, Chris. But it's great that your Whirlwind had good flying qualities. After all, you always put much time and effort in self built models.

Preparing all ribs took more time than expected and time is always short before Christmas (many Christmas markets to visit at the weekends , but now I'm making good progress again.

[Timo Starkloff]

The outer wing is a little bit under 500 mm long, so I cut many 1.5 mm balsa sheets in half and glued them together to a long balsa strip. The construction is the same as on my TK4. The lower rear planking is cut and the rib positions are marked.