Westland Whirlwind 'Whirlibomber' Hoodie

The Whirlwind was a classic WW2 fighter that never fulfilled its true potential. This was the aircraft that was to replace the Spitfire after the initial batch were built because of its potentially lethal cannon armament. Sadly it was never to be, trouble with its ('safe option') Perigrine engines led to them being cancelled meaning little more than 100 of the aircraft were produced. It was proposed a mk would use 2 Merlins but there simply wasn't enough to go round and so the plane un updated went on to be a very effective low level bomber where it was still faster than most of the opposition even by the time they run out of airframes in 1943. When it was in prototype form in 1938 it was so fast indeed it gained the nickname 'CRICKEY'