Westland-Hill Pterodactyl Mk.V

Posted by Flucloxacillin25pc@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 11 comments

The last of the interwar Westland-Hill Pterodactyls. The gunturret has not been installed. Westland has plans for a Mk.VI with a pusher propellor and nose turret but these were aborted due to the poor performance of the aircraft.

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Airplane_nerd111@reddit

This is the greatest thing I have ever seen. Reminds me of the Stits Sky Baby.

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IronMew@reddit

Stits Sky Baby

Real-life Dodo

https://www.gtabase.com/gta-3/vehicles/dodo

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Fr0gFish@reddit

It's amazing. Cant tell if they spent too little time designing it or far too much time

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Thebraincellisorange@reddit

how many different kinds of drugs were being consumed at the same time when they came up with that abomination?

good lord!

great post!

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Flucloxacillin25pc@reddit (OP)

Many thanks. Such a pity they didn’t build the Mks. VII and VIII. See my other post.

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brickfrenzy@reddit

That's the beauty of early aviation work of this time - they just threw shit at the way to see what sticks. It's delightful.

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reddituserperson1122@reddit

What is this perversion?

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Flucloxacillin25pc@reddit (OP)

As it says on the tin, it’s a (Westland-) Hill Pterodactyl Mk.5. It was invented by Captain G.T.R. Hill who joined Westland as a designer. Hill had a thing about stopping pilot deaths in stalls and spins by designing inherently stable aircraft. Surprisingly, the Air Ministry was prepared to finance some of Hill’s designs and Westand were prepared to build them.

The final Pterodactyl was the Mk.V sesquiplane, with a pusher version Mk.VI waiting to be poroduced when the project was cancelled. The really weird aspect is that wind tunnel models already existed of the 4-engined Mk.VII reconnaissance flying boat and a proposal for the Mk.VIII transatlantic airliner was being developed. Mercifully, these did not appear, although Hill had a second career with Short Brothers...

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