200 Welkins were on order, 77 of which had already been produced while another 26 airframes were finished but missing engines when the program was finally scrapped. Only an extremely small amount of the 77 would even fly with the vast majority scrapped. The Welkin had been designed as an extremely highaltitude interceptor fighter during the early 1940s by the designers at Westland.. Featuring a pressurized cockpit and designed to fly up to 45,000ft, the program had received a significant boost when in late 1940, the Luftwaffe began utilizing the Junkers JU 86P to conduct reconnaissance flights at extremely high altitudes over Britain. The first Westland Welkin took to the air on the 1st of November 1942 and production aircraft started appearing off the production lines in August 1943. However, by now the German threat from high altitude had vanished and the RAF lost interest in the project. A night fighter version of the Welkin was developed in 1943/1944, adding AI.VIII radar and a radar operator who flew backwards behind the pilot. Designated Welkin NF.Mk.II only a single prototype flew before the project was cancelled in 1945.
The Westland Welkin was a fighter that the RAF invested in and built, but never used.

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Images:
World War Photos
Destination's Journey
Imperial War Museum
San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives

Sources:
Air Pages: https://airpages.ru/eng/uk/welkin.shtml
Air Vectors: http://www.airvectors.net/avwhirl.html
Aviastar: http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/w...
History of War: http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/...
Military Factory: https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircr...
Yeovil's Virtual Museum: http://www.yeovilhistory.info/westlan...

0:00 0:14 Introduction
0:14 0:25 Title
0:25 1:18 Background Story
1:18 1:46 The P.14
1:46 2:52 The Design
2:52 3:57 The Prototype
3:57 4:43 Production Models
4:43 5:27 The demise of the Welkin
5:27 6:06 The Welkin NF.Mk.II

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