The Westland Dreadnought was an experimental single-engined fixed-wing monoplane designed to test the aerodynamic wing and fuselage design ideas of Woyevodsky.
It was designed and built by British aircraft manufacturer Westland Aircraft for the Air Ministry.
Only a single aircraft was built, and it crashed on its initial flight, badly injuring the test pilot.
The Dreadnought was distinct for its futuristic design and method of construction, based on the theories of the Russian inventor N. Woyevodsky.
After preliminary tests of the idea were tried in a wind tunnel and met with some degree of success, the design was given to Westland Aircraft to construct an aircraft.
The design at the time was for a 70 ft wingspan twin-engine aircraft.
The design was aerodynamically advanced, featuring a continuous aerofoil section over all parts of the aircraft, including the fuselage and unusually for British aircraft at that time, had no form of wing bracing.
Construction was all-metal, comprising drawn channelling with a skin of corrugated sheet panels.
The method may be compared to the modern stressed skin construction.
Although conceived as a twin-engined type with retractable undercarriage, the design that emerged was fitted with a 450-horsepower Napier Lion II 12-cylinder engine that allowed the Dreadnought speeds of up to 102 miles per hour and fixed undercarriage.
