Westland Wizard British Fighter Prototype

Westland Wizard

The Westland Wizard was Westland Aircraft’s first attempt to produce a monoplane fighter. The project was privately funded and the prototype design was done in the spare time of the company’s engineers. This all happened during 1926, with high-speed performance as the primary goal.

The original design, called the Westland Racer was powered by a Rolls Royce Falcon III inline engine. After a landing accident however, the engine was replaced by a Rolls Royce Kestrel engine, giving the aircraft a more streamlined nose. At this point, the company decided to rebuild the aircraft as a fighter.

The aircraft was again rebuilt (this time as the Wizard II), when RAF evaluation criticised the forward view. Despite the redesign the RAF preferred biplanes for its fighter aircraft and no orders for the Wizard were made.