Westland Dreadnought

Welcome to this Tales From the Hut & Hangar Aviation Rarities episode. All about the one-off, early 1920's Westland Dreadnought. A very rare beast & not a lot about it can be found.
In this short but eventful episode. It pushed the boundaries of early aircraft development in British aircraft design.
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Recorded @ BTRADS Weston-super-Mare

[@matthewhopson964]

"Nose heavy aircraft fly badly, Tail heavy aircraft fly once"

[@babboon5764]

VERY TRUE ..... But you ARE *supposed* to pick that up in the ground runs & the hops (Even if Ground Effect does obscure the picture a bit)

[@strayling1]

These early failures are so rarely covered, and yet they are so important in understanding the development of aviation. Thanks, and more please!

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks, appreciated. I agree & that is my motivation for working on these episodes.

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

Thank's for digging this out of the British aviation archives, I had no idea such an abomination was built. The Napier Lion was a good engine but 450hp for this airframe was pushing it. I suspect it pitched from low stabiliser authority as that wing is huge. Thanks again look forward to your next video. . Any oddball airships ?.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks! Great you enjoyed it. Umm...Airships...maybe?

[@joannemason5581]

Love these obscure aircraft videos. It goes to prove that there's always something new to learn. Keep up the good work and thank you.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks for the nice feedback. There is more on my list & the next one is a really good one.

[@trottermalone379]

When ideas look good, but... Thanks for presenting this curiosity.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thank you.

[@tomlindsay4629]

Pretty amazing aircraft that I've never heard of before.

[@terryfowler6090]

The years between WW1 &WW2 saw some really bizarre designs. Some worked, some didn't.

[@towgod7985]

With an empty weight of 5,600lbs, and having only 450hp, the term.....criminally underpowered....... comes to mind. Cheers.

[@pencilpauli9442]

It looks so promising, and one sees an early attempt at the lifting body concept...but that nose looks like it's been slapped on from another design. It's so incongruous and pitiful lol My immediate thought was that it was underpowered.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Almost everything back then was let down by power.

[@JohnDavies-cn3ro]

If the kite was originally envisioned as a twin engined machine, did anybody think about changes needed to the structure if they did away with one engine? Rather like the R101, it makes you wonder.....

[@tertiusimpostor]

@@pencilpauli9442 you share my opinion.

[@ralphe5842]

About average for aircraft of the day and somewhat better at gross weight

[@zig_ziggy]

It looks vastly under-powered for such a large wetted surface and dry weight.

[@waltergolston6187]

extremely interesting shape somewhere between a flying wing and a traditional plane.

[@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665]

Blended wing designs... are not new.. one of my favourites is the US Moonbat. Its hardly suprising they had accidents given the early stages of the whole technology.

[@stay_at_home_astronaut]

The stall could have been due to a mis-calculated center of lift and/or center of gravity.

[@MrDino1953]

They really had no idea of what they were doing. And so cavalier with lives.

[@Farweasel]

Untrue & partially true Aerodynamic theory was being worked out as far back as 1799 by sir George Cayley, although refinements were constant & continue The fatalistic view of test flying WAS a factor but then - As Eric 'Winkle' Brown highlighted, many of his test pilot peers prepared for the next day's flight by trying to drink the bar dry. [In contrast, he read up all the engineer's notes]. Guess who survived

[@ThreenaddiesRexMegistus]

I guess they knew what not to do after this debacle.

[@P61guy61]

Thank you for posting! Interesting history.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it

[@Acmecycle]

Thanks for another excellent video.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks, appreciated.

[@JohnDavies-cn3ro]

I'd wondered why I'd never heard about this ship - watching the sad story of its one and only flight explains why. Its a shame it failed - it certainly looks a nice machine. I must track down your earlier films, as I like these early, experimental 'suck it and see' types.

[@Farweasel]

I looked it it and saw echoes - well precursors I suppose - of Fairey Battles & Curtiss P-40s

[@radiosnail]

A new one for me. Thankyou

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. t Thanks !

[@brianedwards7142]

Why do they always insist on putting lawn mower engines on high powered designs and then are surprised when they flop?

[@garyhargreaves5630]

Very interesting aircraft, I’d certainly never heard of it. Terrible accident, and consequences, for the test pilot.

[@terencewong-lane4309]

*Fascinating*

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks T-W-L 🙂

[@paulwoodman5131]

Interesting idea early in aviation. Lifting Bodies....Surprised it wasn't explored further. Is there any model builders that could make something like that ? that would look fantastic in balsa. 🎉

[@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665]

Blended wing designs abound.. and are still one of the ways to go if you actually want to be efficient. The russians built a frontier plane and flew it on floats and ski's .. There are models and builders out there who can definately make scale versions fly.. given modern technology.

[@user-ck3uu8rj3x]

I think you can see the Russian influences but it also reminds me of several French bombers.

[@jefmatttab]

I would have never known 👍

[@Sopot]

manta plane ;)

[@NoahSpurrier]

It looked good.

[@mysterycrumble]

doing a comment to help creator :)

[@babboon5764]

Well HELL - I knew nothing of this cunning but obscure initiative - *Excellent discovery & video* I'm puzzled too ....Surely they could have done balance tests on the ground before hand? + Its got pretty hefty elevators - It seems weird that Capt Keep the pilot couldn't get it out of the stall even if he did only had 100 to play with And why abandon what looked then like a promising line of development?

[@Farweasel]

Wonder if the corrugated 'combed' metal design was a factor? Sometimes you stick bits on to improve laminar airflow over the wings And whilst that delays (OK reduces) stall speed When it does stall it goes as sharply as the proverbial stack of bricks

[@user-en9zo2ol4z]

Just stumbled on your channel, so have subscribed.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thank you. Please have a good look at the other stuff I have uploaded here.

[@noahwail2444]

It must have been a pretty boring view from the passengerwindows...

[@monostripezebras]

another great one

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Thanks!

[@joachimjarlev3154]

Leeds are good and question is to learn to from the promoted 3 from 2023-2024 and as a Forest fan do keep the core of the team add quality where its need to be

[@user-en9zo2ol4z]

A shame about the open cockpit, but the fuselage section appears to be of a lifting body layout. Though I doubt that was the idea?

[@JohnDavies-cn3ro]

The open cockpit seemed a common idea on 'airliners' back then - the Junkers machines also had them, and so, I think, a few others.

[@dodden1]

The bottom of the leading edge is too sharp, square.

[@tertiusimpostor]

Wonderful airplane, criminally underpowered (else might have made it)😟

[@SSmith-fm9kg]

I guess it was never tested for center of gravity.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

Really! I'm sure they did. The basics of aircraft building. Westland were experienced builders.

[@redtobertshateshandles]

It just looks wrong.

[@mygodisyahweh8634]

It would have been a early exceptional design for several later projects... IF they would have used the proper engine.

[@talesfromthehutandhangar]

He had plans to scale it up even more with a bigger better engine.