Rolls-Royce Peregrine - Operational History

Operational History

The two aircraft types that used the Peregrine, the Westland Whirlwind and the second prototype of the Gloster F9/37, were both twin-engine designs – the prototype F9/37 had used the Bristol Taurus radial engine. The Air Ministry requirement for the F9/37, a cannon-armed fighter (the Hurricane and Spitfire were armed with machine guns only at this point), was curtailed and there was no further progress with the design. The Whirlwind, despite having excellent low-altitude performance, proved uneconomical compared with single-engined fighters, and also suffered as a consequence of the Peregrine reliability problems. Low production rates of the Peregrine caused delays in delivery to squadron use. In August 1940 Ernest Hives, head of the Rolls-Royce aero engine division, wrote to Air Chief Marshal Wilfrid Freeman expressing his wish to stop work on the Peregrine, Vulture and another engine development project, the Rolls-Royce Exe to concentrate efforts on the Merlin and Griffon, but Freeman disagreed and stated that Peregrine production should continue.

While reliability problems were not uncommon for Rolls-Royce's new engine designs of the era, the company's testing department was told to spend all of their time on developing the more powerful Merlin to maturity. As a result of the Merlin's priority, the unreliable Peregrine was eventually abandoned with production ending in 1942. Other cannon-armed fighters, such as the Hawker Typhoon and the Bristol Beaufighter, were becoming available; and since the Whirlwind had been tightly designed around the Peregrine, changing to a different engine at this stage was not, therefore, a feasible option. Only 116 Whirlwinds and a corresponding number of Peregrines (301) were built.