Westland PV-7
| PV.7 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Military general-purpose aircraft |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Westland Aircraft Co. Ltd |
| Designer | Arthur Davenport |
| First flight | 30 October 1933 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Westland PV.7 was a private venture submission to a 1930s British specification for a general-purpose military aircraft with two crew. It was a single-engined, high-wing monoplane of promise, but was destroyed early in official tests.
The Air Ministry specification G.4/31 called for a Westland Wapiti replacement, a multi-role aircraft capable of carrying out level bombing, army co-operation, dive bombing, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation and torpedo bombing. Nine manufacturers responded with designs, and while some gained contracts for single prototypes, such were the potential rewards that others, like Westland, built aircraft as private ventures. Contenders were the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.19, Blackburn B-7, Bristol 120, Fairey G.4/31, Handley Page HP.47, Hawker P.V.4, Parnall G.4/31, Vickers Type 253 and the Westland PV.7. Only Westland and Handley Page submitted monoplane designs. The Ministry expressed a preference for an air-cooled engine and all manufacturers apart from Armstrong-Whitworth and Blackburn chose the nine-cylinder Bristol Pegasus radial.
The Westland PV.7 was a large, tall single-engined high-wing monoplane with separate cockpits for two crew. The constant-chord wings were all-metal, built around two spars with ribs and inter-spar rods for stiffening. Leading-edge Handley Page slats were fitted outboard, and the inboard trailing edges carried 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) span split flaps that opened symmetrically above and below the wing to act as dive brakes. Ailerons extended Immediately outboard of the flaps, almost to the wing tips. The wings met the top of the fuselage, with the pilot's head between them and behind the line of the outer leading edge, so at the centre the wings were thinned and tapered on the leading edge to improve his view. Originally his cockpit was open, but as it was only 6 ft (1.83 m) behind the propeller it was very draughty and was eventually glazed in, with entry via an opening upper panel and extending rearwards above the wing. On each side a pair of parallel, cranked lift struts joined the lower fuselage to about mid-span, reinforced by struts from the crank-point to the upper fuselage. The main lift struts had a wide chord airfoil section and themselves contributed to lift. The main undercarriage legs were fitted to these struts at the crank-point, each axle supported by a pair of V-struts to the lower fuselage. There was a castoring tailwheel under the tailplane.
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