Afternoon walkaround with a Westland Lysander
Afternoon walkaround with a Westland Lysander
Named for the famed ancient age Spartan general Lysander this aircraft excelled well beyond the original liaison role for which it was designed. Westland’s Lysander had excellent short field performance lent by lightweight construction, advanced wing features and powerful Bristol Mercury 870 hp (649kW) radial engine. Fabric covered most of the fuselage as well as the high mounted wing, which had slotted flaps as well as slats allowing the Lysander to fly slowly — as slow as 65 mph (104kph). Defensive armament and armor were almost nonexistent, range and speed were not bragged about either — yet it was the Lysander which most often flew clandestine missions into occupied France during WW II to insert or extract agents or deliver equipment and supplies. These missions were flown by dead reckoning, during periods around a full moon and landing in meadows simply lit by, hopefully, French resistance fighters. The pilot sat high under the forward portion of a greenhouse canopy, and with excellent visibility, while behind was a station for a radio operator/gunner — or space for a passenger (two in a pinch).
This Lysander, with a sea schemed camouflage livery, is displayed at the Florida Air Museum and was photographed during a beautiful November afternoon day when it had luckily been pulled out of the hangar for an event.
Westland Lysander at the Florida Air Museum — photo by Joseph May
The Lysander’s powerful Bristol Mercury engine is plainly seen from this perspective as are the spats mounted landing lights and strut braced wing — photo by Joseph May
Large elevator surfaces as well as variable incidence tailplane lent excellent low speed control characteristics to the Lysander pilot — photo by Joseph May
The pilot’s cockpit has excellent views to the sides, up and to the rear as well as forward (once in flight) — photo by Joseph May
The rear position has a footstep (in the lighter colored ventral area just forward of the roundel ) as well as another (just to the rear of the “B”) and also note the fabric covering the fuselage) — photo by Joseph May
Perhaps a unique wing shape of the Lysander? — photo by Joseph May
Rear profile view showing the rear canopy rails — photo by Joseph May
One of my favorite WWII anecdotes came from a former RAF Lysander pilot. Apparently the lifting qualities of the Lysander wing were such that if you had a good wind, you could just point the plane into it, set the wing and elevator controls and bring the engine power up and the wind would do the rest so that the plane could get off the ground without any sort of take off role.
He told me about seeing a Harrier take off vertically and wondering what all the fuss was about “We were doing the same thing in Lysanders years before and using a lot less fuel in the process!”
Nice! Even more reason to love the Lysander
I think I read somewhere that with any sort of wind the Lysander rose off the ground as opposed to being flown into the air.
What a wonderful Post. Again Joe may you bless us!
)
I had a friend who was a WWII Lysander Pilot and a fine bloke. He and I shared a pint or two while he told me many war stories that could have been embleshed a tad the more we drank and the longer we talked as time pasted. But he often said the plane was like a kite, if the wind was strong enough one could almost tie a string to it and point it into the wind and fly it like a kite, which made it a bear to land in crosswind conditions. But Philip did say that if you lost an engine, you had all day to find a “proper place to set ‘er down” since the glide angle was so great. He said there were a lot of times they would cut off their engines and do dead stick landings behind enemy lines… (I always wondered if that wasn’t a stetch though
Thanks for this post Joe, The Florida Air Museum is one of the best and we are so proud to have it here in Lakeland at the Sun n Fun Campus.
“JR” Hafer
It is a great museum and a very friendly one at that
Nice recollections of your friend as well and thanks for them 