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The Westland Witch was an unsuccessful British bomber prototype, first flown in 1928. Only a single aircraft of this type was built. ==Development== The Witch was developed to specification 23/25 for a single-engined day bomber operating at high altitude.〔K.J. Meekcoms and E.B. Morgan ''The British Aircraft Specifications File'', Air-Britain, UK 1994.〕 This specification initially requested the use of the Bristol Orion, a turbocharged version of the Bristol Jupiter, but other variants of the Jupiter were substituted after development of the Orion encountered difficulties. All aircraft submitted to 23/25 suffered from engine problems, and none of them was put into production. The Witch employed a strut-braced parasol monoplane configuration. The wing was of wood and steel construction and spanned a generous . The fuselage was built from duralumin and steel tubes, covered with fabric, and with an uncowled Jupiter engine in the nose. The Witch had a crew of two, pilot and gunner/bombardier. The latter had a cockpit with a Lewis gun on a Scarff ring aft of the pilot, but could also leave this for a prone bomb-aiming position. A bomb bay was incorporated in the fuselage in front of the pilot, with four doors which could be opened by the bombardier or would open under the weight of the dropped bombs. As specified in 23/25, a single 520 lb bomb could be carried, or a number of smaller weapons.〔H.F. King, ''Armament of British Aircraft 1909-1939'', Military Book Society, UK 1971.〕 The presence of a bomb bay in the fuselage required a complicated split-axle arrangement for the fixed undercarriage, which was braced to the fuselage and the wing struts. A cross-axle would have been in path of the falling bombs.〔F.K. Mason, ''The British Bomber since 1914'', Putnam UK 1994〕 The prototype of the Witch, serial J8596, was first flown on 30 January 1928 at RAF Andover, with Louis Paget at the controls. The type was praised for its stability as a bombing platform, and its 138 mph maximum speed was good, although its 62 mph landing speed was felt to be too fast for comfort. However, the Witch was judged unsuitable for service due to structural weaknesses, including a number of failures of the landing gear struts and other components.〔T. Mason, ''British Flight Testing Martlesham Heath 1920-1939'', Putnam UK 1993〕 The same aircraft was nevertheless presented again in the next year in Mk.II form, with a Jupiter VIIIF engine replace the earlier Jupiter VI, and was used for testing of parachutes until 1931.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Westland Witch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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