Armstrong Whitworth Whitley MkV

Modeling project for animation

Used as a subject for some 3D modeling work - with the intention to use as a prototype in the bigger Stirling Project I am now working on. Though this one remains unfinished- there is always uses for the files created. They can be imported into animation programs for further work.
Click right for a rendered enlargement from the flyby movie clip. I used Bryce to render this since the background image is so easy to do. However some mapping problems remain (despite touching up with Photoshop). The above image is a much more recent render.		_
PLANS	These are the plans I used in this project. They are of low detail and not especially accurate- follow a link to purchase more detailed plans from Airpictoral Magazine.
The main tool I used for this project was 3D Studio Max - having experimented with various modeling techniques _ I settled on traditional Mesh modeling Using Habwares Aerofoil plugin to create the wing section, extruded it out into several sections & rounded the wing-tips This has unfortunately produced long thin faces which seems to be the main problem with some modifications later on. Blending the engine primitive in with the wing was long & tedious. So why did I choose the Whitley? It is rather a "pivotal" machine which was used in the early part of WWII for Nickel raids- this means dropping propaganda leaflets at night deep into enemy territory. This experience gained experience for the RAF who were then ready to begin the Night blitz over Nazi Germany. The winter of 1939-40 was bitterly cold & many aircraft were lost due to freezing up of systems & control surfaces. Pilots had to weave the aircraft about its path to prevent the ailerons, elevators etcetera from freezing as the airframe gained hundreds of pounds in ice- which severely affected aerodynamic behaviour and ensured bare skin would weld onto metal should it make contact- causing ice-burns. The most significant factor in my choice is rarity. There seems less point making movie clips for aircraft that are readily filmable. The design represents a turning point in British bomber design. Many features were -once developed, put into the later Halifax & Lancaster. It did suffer from low cruising speed (185mph) and limited altitude ceiling which made the design vulnerable to anti-aircraft ground-fire. The wrecks of numerous Whitleys litter the Staffordshire countryside from trainee pilot errors. Perhaps the rather strange Air ministry requirements for heavy bombers to use short takeoff runs has hamstrung the design in the same way as the Stirling. Certainly the aerofoil is very thick, I can only speculate as to it's stall characteristics in the hands of a novice pilot. As far as I know, there are no Whitleys left in one piece- please correct me if I am wrong here- I would love to go & see one (in whatever condition). Even the Frogg model is not currently available. Also I am quite short of information about this aircraft, there seem to be no books specifically about this one type, but if readers know of the availability of out of print publications I would be very interested.-write-me The above aircraft's markings are fictitious, the code MD-D is merely taken from my own Initials.
There are relatively few pages dedicated to the whitley , but try these: http://www.nucleus.com/~ltwright/whitley.htm http://www.military.cz/british/air/war/bomber/whitley/whitley_en.htm Operated by No. 19 OTU U-boat net have a page describing the role in Coastal command though the page deserves better layout, Danshistory is full of facts worth a read.

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