WHIFs found at HyperScale

[pyro-manic]

What has he done to that poor Centauro? 

[The Rat]

Apparently this one was bashed together in about 3 hours. Definitley no AMS on this project!

[The Rat]

New Whirlwind whiffer is hitting the bench. I'll be watching this one closely!

[NARSES2]

New Whirlwind whiffer is hitting the bench. I'll be watching this one closely!

Good find Ratty - looks interesting, maybe an invite is in order ?

[Martin H]

Griffon's? They will give it some real welly.

[JayBee]

Griffon's! Strewth! That is a scary thought 

[perttime]

Whirlwind whiffer

Does the Whirlwind have anything heavy that you can move to the tail to balance it with the Griffons? I've understood that at least some Griffon Spitfires needed  lead in the tail.

[RussC]

Whirlwind whiffer

Does the Whirlwind have anything heavy that you can move to the tail to balance it with the Griffons? I've understood that at least some Griffon Spitfires needed  lead in the tail.

  Lengthen the fuselage, move the CG aft. Putting Pb in an airframe is just so counter-intuitive!

  It looks like He's even cropped the wingtips, that machine is gonna be a real screamer. If its for racing the CG problem goes away by losing the cannons and stopping the nose at the wing leading edges.

[kitnut617]

Whirlwind whiffer

Does the Whirlwind have anything heavy that you can move to the tail to balance it with the Griffons? I've understood that at least some Griffon Spitfires needed  lead in the tail.

I've mentioned before (in the Whirlwind thread I think)  I have a book about Westland and Harold Penrose in particular. In it it says that everything aft of the wing on the Whirlwind was made from magnesium (except u/c parts, hinges etc.) as it was a non-stategic material at the time.  Magnesium to aluminum is like aluminum to steel, it's about twice as light for the same material size and thickness but a piece of magnesium needs to be thicker than a similar sized piece of aluminum to keep the same strength.  So if the whole rear fuselage of the Whirlwind used aluminum of the same thickness as the magnesium parts, it not only would be heavier but stronger too.  Having said that, I think some sort of extra ballast would be required for the Griffon installation but for a Merlin I think it would be perfect.

To move more weight out of the nose, I think I would move the cannon to a pannier under the cockpit.

Out of interest:

Peregrine weighs 1140 lbs, dimensions are L71 1/2"x W27"x H41"
Griffon  weighs 1980 lbs, dimensions are L81"x W30 1/2"x H46"

Weight wise, it's like adding a whole extra Peregrine forward of the cg point.

[NARSES2]

Interesting Kitnut. I never realised Magnesium wasn't considered a strategic material. Must of been fun when working with it, especially welding

[kitnut617]

I think it was just used in sheet form or castings Narses, but if you think about it, back then they were just getting their heads around working with aluminum on aircraft.

[NARSES2]

but if you think about it, back then they were just getting their heads around working with aluminum on aircraft.

Yes very true, I tend to forget that. I used to work with a lady who'd been a welder in an aircraft factory during WWII and she was trained to weld Ali. She often commented on how much "fun" that was

[Green Dragon]

Did some engineering and electronics courses many moons ago. I was great at soldering, reasonably good at brazing, okay at welding steel, ali just went up in a puff of smoke every damn time I tried it!! 

Paul Harrison

[Rheged]

Ali just went up in a puff of smoke every damn time I tried it!! 

Doesn't magnesium do the "PUFF OF SMOKE"  trick if it gets hot?   I can recall participating in an unfortunate incident in a chemistry lesson in ??1964??.  It proved that if you drop a hot deflagrating spoon into  a largish saucer of magnesium powder, you can really annoy a chemistry master. I was just a witness (honest) and I was flash-blinded for several minutes!

[perttime]

Anyway, it is clearly quite possible to weld magnesium:
http://www.paketabikes.com/index.cfm?page=technology

Magnesium shavings are easy to ignite but a more solid chunk of the metal is not quite that volatile.