The Westland Scio

[rickshaw]

The Westland Scio

The Westland Scio  was a successor to the Whirlwind.  "Scio" is Saxon for "Sky".  The Scio was designed between the Whirlwind and the Welkin.  It was intended to be a photo reconnaissance   aircraft.

Equipped with twin Rolls Royce Griffin engines, extended wings and two photographic cameras it was meant to soar high above the earth, taking photos of the ground far beneath.   It was designed to cruise for extended range at over 40,000 feet.  It carried sufficient film to photograph 150 miles in a swath 10 miles wide.  It was meant to elude all potential enemy interceptors by it's high altitude and its high speed of over 390 mph at 40,000.

The  Scio was developed in 1942 as a successor to the Whirlwind which was tested as a Photo-Recce aircraft in 1940.  In competition against the Spitfire, the Spitfire winning primarily because of the amount of support available to it, rather than necessarily because it was the better aircraft.  The Whirlwind was found to have a ceiling of over 35,000 feet and a speed of approximately 300 mph.   The decision was taken to build a better Whirlwind and so the  Scio resulted.  It was a Whirlwind with six feet longer wings and twin Griffin engines able to cruise at 40,000 feet.

Three prototypes were built and used experimentally by RAE to prove it's capabilities.  The model depicts the first prototype intended to prove the aerodynamics of the aircraft.  It was not adopted by the RAF and instead the Spitfire and Mosquito fulfilled it's role.  The Scio was the link between the Whirlwind and the Welkin.











The Model

The model is an Airfix one, with extended wings from plasticard and resin engine cowls from 63cpe,  The propellers from an Airfix Spitfire Mk.22 kit.  The decals are from the Whirlwind kit and Kit's Decals.  The paint is from Vallejo and applied with a hairy stick.

[PR19_Kit]

What big engines you've got! 

[rickshaw]

What big engines you've got! 

And I thought people were going to talk about it's Big Nose!   

[Dizzyfugu]

Neat. 

[zenrat]

Neat neat neat.

[Martin H]

defacing the nose of a whirlwind like that has to be heresy!

I like it!

[NARSES2]

Always like anything to do with the Whirlwind 

[Tophe]

Good! or even: 

[63cpe]

Ooooh, great! very neat!  Got a similar plan..

IMG_20210101_174929924 by Buddy Holly, on Flickr

But what happened to the props? broken on arrival?

David aka 63cpe

[Doug K]

Fantastic

[The Rat]

Ugly and neat!

[rickshaw]

But what happened to the props? broken on arrival?

The props were great.  Unfortunately I couldn't get them to work.  In the end it was just easier to snaffle some injected ones from a kit.