Thread: Westland Lysander

Good article from Flight Magazine from 1939 on Army Co-operation:

http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchi...0-%201512.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchi...0-%201513.html

A few nice shots of the Lys.

Today's airworthy Lizzies have some of the rarest airworthy engines in the world in the Bristol Mercury.

http://www.irishairpics.com/database/photo/1024109/

Excellent report on flying the Lizzie from Chief Pilot at Old Warden, Andy Sephton:
http://www.pilotweb.aero/content/art...e.aspx?id=3038

Can't find any reference to the French machine. Hang on, that might be because it's Belgian and owned by the Sabena Old Timers! #@$%&! Great resto story:
http://users.skynet.be/fa452862/hist_uk.htm
http://users.skynet.be/fa452862/prevol_uk.htm

The Canadian airworthy Lizzie:
http://www.warplane.com/pages/aircraft_lysander.html

Kermit Weeks has one as well in Florida but don't think she's flown in a while.

Flying Legends 2007. Gorgeous engine note and some incredible slow flying.

Have any of you got a decent picture or diagram showing how the gunner's machine gun (single or double), was mounted and retracted, and what field of fire it had? As far as I can tell, the rear gun mounting was a retrograde step compared with the Lysander's predecessors - no Scarff ring allowing for easy training in any direction. Could the gunner fire directly back over the rear fuselage? (I doubt it)

The shot of the Canadian rebuild and the RAF Museum example give very little clue (I've been right up to the RAFM one and as far as I can see the rear gun mountain is not fitted). Contemporary photos are not much use either - probably censored.

Here are a couple more of the venerable "lizzie".

Web Lysander.JPG

Web Lysander a.JPG

Cheers

Owen

Dont have any myself, not sure if this link helps ?...

Large Scale Planes

Thanks, GD, but no sign of the rear gun mounting. I wonder if these were all removed when the type ceased to be used for Army Co-op and the answer has died with the men who built and flew it.
I wonder if Westland still have any plans?

Its also noticeable how little room the gunner had - I had assumed he had the whole of the space under the rear canopy, but he clearly didn't. There was decking all round him at waist level. I wonder if more space was created for agent pick-ups - I believe it was sometimes possible to carry two agents?

Another Lysander question:

It seems that these aircraft were withdrawn from the Artillery Spotting roles after the fall of France due the heavy casualities involved. In Normandy, the Auster was used in that role (flown by Artillery officers not the RAF) and the Americans used the Piper L4Cub, Stinson L19 Grasshopper etc. These types were even slower than the Lizzie and would have been even more vulnerable, but we had Air Superiority by then.

So how was artillery spotting carried out between 1940 and 1944, in North Africa for instance? Did they use aircraft, and if so what type? I believe that Tomahawks were used by Army Co-op units - was artillery spotting one of their roles?