Jagan

Well you have raised a ‘can of worms’. None of the photos of the supposedly Wapiti V batch, (J9725 to J9759 with the exception of J9728) appear to me to have the revised longer rear fuselage which has been an attributed feature of this RAF version in type histories.

I also believe that J9728 should not be described as a long fuselage Wapiti V but rather the sole long fuselage Wapiti V.

Thanks John. Glad to have your well informed opinion to support my open can of worms 🙂

I stumbled on this while working with Juanita Franzi on the colour profiles and it was during the various correspondence with her, we settled down to the fact that there is no discernible length difference for MkVs with the exception of J9728.

Ofcourse that gallery has pictures of only 14 of the 34 MkVs produced. so another 20 to go.. But at this point I am certain all the rest will be like these 14!. 9728 is the only one of the MkV batch that wasnt shipped to India. And all the 33 remaining ones ended up being sent to India.

So perhaps MkV was just a convenient way to designate some sort of ‘tropicalised’ variant? or some feature that was used only in the Indian Subcontinent.

Type A are fitted with geared Jupiter VIII’s and with direct exhaust ports (these must have been pretty noisy and smelly). Type B have the later exhausts with the larger collector ring chamber developed for the (longer gearbox) geared Jupiter’s (VIII and VIII.F) However to confuse some Mk II.A’s were also produced with the ungeared Jupiter VI ( group C) and these had the smaller diameter props and thinner bifurcated exhaust collectors required by the lesser ‘prop to crankcase’ clearance. The Mk V Wapiti seems to be quite camera shy and if we can find some good side on shots it will be easy to see any length difference.

John this is awesome information.. I could never understand why in spite of being the same engine the A and B type of aircraft looks so different.

To add a bit of additional twist, I have photographs of the same numbered aircraft with both the TypeA and Type B looks.. so assuming that at some point the Type A got converted to Type B

Reg TypeC that they were Jupiter VIs.. I suspected but had no proof. it gets confusing because the UK squadrons had a mixed bag of Wapitis – J series, K series etc and they all had the thin profiled engine.. So we will have to assume the UK ones were all VIs and the overseas ones were all Jupiter VIIIs

Reg different photos of Mark V, I got a ton of them here http://www.rafcommands.com/galleries/Aircraft-Database/Westland-Wapiti/MkV-J9725-J9759

I am trying to put together a database of “1 of every number” at this location

http://www.rafcommands.com/galleries/Aircraft-Database/Westland-Wapiti, dividing them by Contract Number, block number and ofcourse Mark Number..
(Photo Credits belong to multiple sources – but all for common good of research). You will see the ‘Type C’ engine on the Mark VI

lastly I re-checked my copy of the Jupiter VIII, VIIIF and XI manual and it does talk about the ‘B’ type Exhaust Collector ring and its fitment.. That manual IIRC was dated 1931 and after so it fits well with the expectation that the exhaust collector ring over the geared Jupiter VIIIF is a later mod.

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BTW this is just about MkIIAs and MkVs.. If I go into Mk1 and MkII there are engine differences too – partially faired Jupiter VIs and open Jupiter VIs on the same aircraft.. with spinners and without spinners! etc etc lots of documentation to be made!

Thanks for the replies.. got all excited for a little while there!