Westland Witch

The Westland Witch was an unsuccessful British bomber prototype, first flown in 1928, of which only a single aircraft was built. It was developed to Air Ministry specification 23/25 for a single-engined day bomber operating at high altitude, a specification that initially asked for the Bristol Orion, a turbocharged version of the Jupiter, before other Jupiter variants were substituted when the Orion ran into difficulties. The fuselage was built from duralumin and steel tubes covered with fabric, with an uncowled Jupiter engine in the nose. The prototype, serial J8596, first flew on 30 January 1928 at RAF Andover with Louis Paget at the controls. All aircraft submitted to the specification suffered engine problems and none entered production; the Witch was later re-presented as the Mark II with a Jupiter VIIIF engine and used for parachute testing until 1931.