On November 26th, 1942, the Finnish Air Force commissioned for a pair of prototypes to be constructed but commitments elsewhere in the war meant that the Whirlwind was forced to undergo a long gestation period. Its construction was painstakingly slow by wartime standards particularly when compared to development speeds witnessed in Britain, Germany and the United States. Authorities had targeted May 1944 for the prototype's initial availability but this was not meant to be. Everything changed when the armistice was signed with the Soviets on September 4th, 1944 and one of the ordered prototypes was cancelled and construction of the other was all but stalled. In January of 1945, work on the aircraft resumed which saw the DB 605 engine finally fitted. The war in Europe then ended in May of 1945.
The Whirlwind was able to achieve a first flight in the immediate post-war period when it took to the air on November 21st, 1945. The aircraft proved sound at the controls, highly maneuverable and a good climber but its maiden flight was marred by a panel coming loose from the nose forcing the test pilot to land his now-smoking aircraft. Some 34 test flights then followed and these covered some 30 hours of flight time. However there proved little need for the indigenous fighter and funding became limited while the glut of available post-war Bf 109s only served to doom the program in full. The Whirlwind did remain something of a design triumph for Finland but the aircraft came along much too slow and too late to be of much use in the war effort. The Whirlwind could very well have matched Soviet fighters toe-to-toe would it have been given more time and attention to finally come of age.
The prototype completed its last flight on July 22nd, 1947 and was terminated thereafter. The sole prototype has been preserved at the Aviation Museum of Central Finland (Tikkakoski). Performance specifications included a maximum speed of 385 miles per hour, a service ceiling of 37,000 feet and a rate-of-climb of 3,640 feet per minute. The prototype was never fitted with its proposed armament.
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