Two views of Westland Whirlwind P7110, the 100th and one of the last Whirlwinds built. It was the first single seat heavy fighter built for the RAF and was powered by two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines. It had a decent top speed of 360 miles an hour and was armed with a heavy hitting 4 Hispano-Suiza cannons and it could carry two 250lb bombs under the wings for fighter bomber missions. However, the Peregrine engines were the only ones used by the RAF and were problematic and were underpowered too. This, compounded with the high take off speed of 80 mph and the subsequent long take off and landing runs that limited the available airfields that could be used seriously reduced the effectiveness of the aircraft.

It entered service in late 1940 and was first used in fighter sweeps from June 1941. Whirlwinds escorted Blenheim bombers during the famous Cologne raid in August 1941, took part in harassment raids over Occupied France in both day and night conditions and took part in Operation Starkey in the summer of 1943, which was intended to draw attention away from the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) by faking a landing attempt on French soil. The last Whirlwinds were retired in Late 1943, being replaced by Hawker Typhoons.

The Whirlwind had the potential to be a great aircraft but many things including the problematic power plants and lack of flexibility led to it being only used by only two RAF squadrons- 263 and 137 Sqaudrons. In the end, only 112 Whirlwinds were built and the type passed into relative obscurity in RAF history.