The Westland Dreadnought was an experimental single-engined fixed-wing

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

design for a

mail plane A mail plane is an aircraft used for carrying mail. Aircraft that were purely mail planes existed almost exclusively prior to World War II. Because early aircraft were too underpowered to carry cargoes, and too costly to run any "economy class" ...

created to test the aerodynamic

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

and

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

design ideas of Woyevodsky. It was designed and built by British aircraft manufacturer

Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...

for the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

. Only a single aircraft was built and it crashed on its initial flight, badly injuring the test pilot.

Design and development

The Dreadnought was distinct for its futuristic design and method of construction, based on the theories of the Russian inventor N. Woyevodsky. After preliminary tests of the idea were tried in a wind tunnel and met with some degree of success, the design was given to Westland Aircraft to construct an aircraft. The design at the time was for a 70 ft wingspan twin-engine aircraft. The design was aerodynamically advanced, featuring a continuous

aerofoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

section over all parts of the aircraft, including the fuselage and unusually for British aircraft at that time, had no form of wing bracing. Construction was all-metal, comprising drawn channeling with a skin of corrugated sheet panels. Although conceived as a twin-engined type with retractable

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

, the design that emerged was fitted with a 450-horsepower

Napier Lion II The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in produ ...

12 cylinder engine that allowed the Dreadnought speeds of up to 102 miles per hour and fixed undercarriage."Dreadnought."
''aviationarchive.org''. Retrieved: 2 December 2008.Lukins 1944

Operational history

On completion of the Dreadnought, the pilot Arthur Keep carried out taxi trials and short airborne hops. On 9 May 1924, he took off for its first flight test. The aircraft was initially stable, it soon became clear that Keep was losing control and not long after, at a height of about , the Dreadnought stalled and crashed. Thrown from the aircraft, Keep suffered severe injuries and later had both legs amputated. He remained with the company and did not retire until 1935.Wings from the West
/ref> After this failure, the Dreadnought design was abandoned, although the ideas that were conceived and used in its making were visibly an advancement in aircraft and are appreciated as such in the present day.

Specifications

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * James, Derek N. ''Westland Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1991. . * Lukins, A.H. ''The Book of Westland Aircraft''. Leicester, UK: Harborough, 1944. * Mondey, David. ''Westland: 2 Westland''. London: Jane's, 1982. p. 17.

External links

A Chance Which Westland Missed
''Flight'' 1965 {{Westland aircraft 1920s British experimental aircraft

Dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1924 Low-wing aircraft Conventional landing gear

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications

See also

References

External links