Westland designations

[Stargazer]

Here is an index of Westland aircraft scanned and reorganized in three A4 format pages from the book Westland 50, researched by John R. Taylor and Maurice F. Allward on behalf of Westland Aircraft Ltd. to commemorate the company's 50th anniversary, and published in 1965 by Ian Allan.

A lot of the company's W.** designations are missing (perhaps indicating that Westland themselves had failed to keep an exact record of them in the early years), and only the built types are listed... but what is interesting, beside of course the precise dates and specs, is the mention in the tables' key that the P.** designations were not company-given but "allocated by the Air Ministry as a works symbol for any test machine not yet allocated a Ministry serial number or civil registration."

Of course this does not concern the P.**** design numbers which are covered in another topic:

• Westland drawing numbers — http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,8773.0

Later helicopter designations are dealt with in yet another topic:

• Westland WG Series Designations — http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,324.0

 

[hesham]

Great work my dear Skyblazer,


and I can add;


P.10 & P.11 were a Torpedo Bomber projects,intended for Spec. S24/37
P.12 Lysander
P.13 two seat fighter project for Spec. F4/40


Also the W.36,W.37 & W.38

 

[Stargazer]

P.10 & P.11 were a Torpedo Bomber projects,intended for Spec. S24/37
P.12 Lysander
P.13 two seat fighter project for Spec. F4/40
Also the W.36,W.37 & W.38

Agreed. I also have these in my own list.

The Westland-Delanne tandem-wing P.12 Lysander development is sometimes also seen as the Wendover, although it's not even sure if this name was ever allocated by Westland at any given time or some invention.

 

[walter]

Hi Skyblazer
Have seen the W-38 designation in connection with the sole Wyvern T.Mk.3 two-seater.
Could that be correct?
Did the production Wyvern, the TF.Mk.4 (S.Mk.4) have a separate W-number?
Maybe this was either W-36 or W-37?

 

[Stargazer]

This is what I have:

W.34 Wyvern prototypes (N.11/44), Wyvern TF.1 (F.13/44)
W.35 Wyvern TF.2 and Wyvern S.4 (N.12/45, etc.)
W.36 projected jet engined version of the Wyvern >> see
W.37 ab initio jet trainer project, not Wyvern-related (there has been confusion over this one >> see for details)
W.38 Wyvern T.3 (T.12/48 = OR.174) >> see

Of course, there were quite a few projects in between (>> see for instance), having P.**** designations until circa 1945 and PJD.*** designations after that. The allocation of W.36 to what was only a project is strange, but could indicate that this one progressed a little further, and/or maybe received a development contract.

The W.** system may or may not have been used sequentially after that. One thing is for sure, the only later designations using that prefix letter were the W.80,W.81, W.85 and W.90 helicopters (the WS- Westland-Sikorsky using the Sikorsky numbers), after which the company specialized solely in helicopters and the new WG.** system emerged in the mid-1950s.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

here is my speculation and suggesting about all Westland series;

-WT : that designation began in early of 1920 by WT-1,raising up to WT-27,and maybe more

-W : was for aircraft,maybe began in early 1930s by W.1,and continued up to W.38

-W : second use of this series,maybe started during WWII,passing with W.37 for N.114T

-W : third use of this designation,maybe launched after WWII,with W.50
up to W.80,W.81,W.85 & W.90,for helicopters only

-WG : was for helicopter and VTOL aircraft,is still existing to this day
as I think,WG.1 to WG.47,appeared in early 1962

-P : used from 1930,with P.1 up to P.15,no more Info available

-P : second use of this sequence,from early 1940s,P.1000 up to P.1061,maybe raised more

-Model : we find Model-606 & Model-656,guess it started from Model-500 ?

-J : early 1940s,used for Jet powered aircraft only,J.1 to J.15

-PJD : a Project Drawing,early 1940s,from PJD.1 up to PJD.310

-PDD : also a Project Drawing,for helicopter compound and
VTOL aircraft,PDD.1 up to PDD.45 grew up in 1960s ?

-SD : I can't ID it well,SD.522 for Brabazon IIA,I think it was a series
of early drawings began with SD.1 or SD.100 ?

Any additions or corrections are welcome

 

[Kiltonge]

Flight, 5 October 1961. Westland signed a 10-year deal with Vertol for production and support of the 107 in the UK "and certain territories abroad". Production would be shared with Bristol Helicopters. No designation stated.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

here is my speculation and suggesting about all Westland series;

-WT : that designation began in early of 1920 by WT-1,raising up to WT-27,and maybe more

-W : was for aircraft,maybe began in early 1930s by W.1,and continued up to W.38

-W : second use of this series,maybe started after WWII,passing with W.37 for N.114T

-W : third use of this designation,maybe launched after WWII,with W.50
up to W.80,W.81,W.85 & W.90,for helicopters only

-WG : was for helicopter and VTOL aircraft,is still existing to this day
as I think,WG.1 to WG.47,appeared in early 1962

-P : used from 1930,with P.1 up to P.15,no more Info available

-P : second use of this sequence,from early 1940s,P.1000 up to P.1061,maybe raised more

-Model : we find Model-606 & Model-656,guess it started from Model-500 ?

-J : early 1940s,used for Jet powered aircraft only,J.1 to J.15

-PJD : a Project Drawing,early 1940s,from PJD.1 up to PJD.310

-PDD : also a Project Drawing,for helicopter compound and
VTOL aircraft,PDD.1 up to PDD.45 grew up in 1960s ?

-SD : I can't ID it well,SD.522 for Brabazon IIA,I think it was a series
of early drawings began with SD.1 or SD.100 ?

Any additions or corrections are welcome

During early 1930s and in 1940s,1950s & 1960s,there were many projects,which never belong to
any each of these designations ?!.

 

[hesham]

-Model : we find Model-606 & Model-656,guess it started from Model-500 ?

From Putnam's book,if we consider this helicopter called Model-251,so we can
assume that,the 600 series was begun from Model-1 ?.

 

[Maveric]

But the picture says 2/51! In my opinion, this is a completely different designation than Model 251.

 

[hesham]

But the picture says 2/51! In my opinion, this is a completely different designation than Model 251.

Of course I know that,but in a magazine (probably Aeroplane),they also called it Model-251 ?.

 

[robunos]

But the picture says 2/51! In my opinion, this is a completely different designation than Model 251.

It's referred to as 'Westland 251' in the new Westland Projects book . . .

cheers.
Robin.

 

[Stargazer]

It was a tandem S-51, so the designation "251" was perfectly logical (though I have it listed as "2-51").
It was not part of any logical numbering sequence, just like WS-51, WS-55, WS-58, WS-61 or WAH-64 weren't.

 

[Hood]

There was a discussion a while back by Air Britain on how genuine the WS designations were, it seems that although they were widely used by the aviation press and spotters that they were not actually stamped onto the data plates etc. and were actually S-51, S-55 etc.