The Westland Lysander

Somewhat difficult to fly, but a valuable asset to the SOE.

You will all have noted a slew of new releases from Airfix recently. Being a British based company, we tend to see a lot more publicity for new kit releases here in the UK than perhaps with other model manufacturers and quite right too- a British company trading in its home market place should receive this sort of attention. I note that MOS6510 models has also been promoting these releases also and his Monday night live streams often contain details of the new kits. Pay him a visit if you can.

I have acquired the new Westland Lysander kit and my own review may be found here:

I have taken a particular interest in the Westland Lysander for many years and first encountered it when I was an air cadet. A very enthusiastic and skilled V/R, (volunteer reserve) Flight Lieutenant, (pronounced “leff-tennant” not “loo-tennant” which is something quite different), had made an electrically powered model Lysander for use in “round the pole” flying. Briefly “round the pole” was a form of model aircraft flying in which a small aircraft was tethered to a pole by one wing and powered by a small electric motor which was fed by a pair of wires via the tether to the pole. A set of bearings and connectors allowed the aircraft to taxi, lift off and whizz around and round the pole when the throttle was depressed. It was rather like an aerial version of “Scalextric,” and it was also possible to power two aircraft at once, therefore allowing an aircraft chase of sorts. We didn’t have video games in those days. Our Flt Lt’s Lysander was scratch built and looked certainly looked the part, finished as it was in matte black. We always favoured it as it was better and faster than the rest of the models. Good old Flt. Lt. Jones…

It is without doubt that The Westland aircraft company will be best known for its more recent production of helicopters, the development of which commenced after the second world war, but it was also a competent contract manufacturer for a number of British aircraft makers beginning around the time of WW1. This started with an order for Short Type 184 seaplanes followed by contracts with Sopwith for the 1 1/2 Strutter and with De Havilland for the DH4, DH9 and DH9A as well as the Vickers Vimy.

The predilection for giving aircraft of the day strange names was not, it would appear, restricted (as we have seen elsewhere) to the Hawker aircraft company. Not to be outdone, Westland came up with some odd names of their own when they started to build aircraft. Some examples were the Wagtail, (an undesirable quality in an aeroplane I would have thought), the Weasel, the Wood pigeon and the Wapiti. My own view is that the prize for strange aircraft names can probably go to the Westland Pterodactyl which was a tailless experimental aircraft built in the late 1920’s.

Anyway, it would appear that Westland’s efforts between the wars met with some success- the Wapiti production for example numbered some 580 units, mainly to the RAF, however most aircraft were built in numbers of 10 or less. A particular example is the “Wessex,” a high wing monoplane airliner used by Sabena and designed by Robert Bruce, (whose middle name was definitely not “The”) and which originated from the “Westland Limousine,” another aircraft name they cheekily coined themselves.

The Woodpigeon was built for the Lympne aircraft trials and four units are said to have taken part, although history is not clear as to whether or not a guilty verdict was handed down to any of the participants.

The deteriorating position in Europe throughout the mid to late thirties brought about, (as we have seen) the rapid development of all manner of fighters, bombers, liaison aircraft and the like. Westland, who had by this time separated their engine and aircraft divisions, were concentrating on the plethora of Ministry of supply requirements and responded to an invitation to treat for the requirement A.39/34 for a liaison aircraft. This invitation was extended to them after the offerings from Hawker, Avro and Bristol were submitted.

The design submitted by Westland was created by Arthur Davenport and Teddy Petter after considerable research into what pilots actually needed from a reconnaissance and liaison aircraft. The answers they came up with were that short take-off capability was important, as was a good field of view and good low speed characteristics. This is a good example of a company interrogating the market and responding to the prevailing requirements.

Whilst its appearance was rather similar to contemporary aircraft, its design employed a slightly different approach in order to meet the requirements of A.39/34. The wings contained a reverse taper towards the trailing edge and also were fitted with automatic flaps and slats which started to operate at around 85mph and over which the pilot had no control with the exception of a locking lever for the flaps when fully deployed. The flap/ slat feature greatly aided low speed flying and was particularly useful in landing on short runways. This, coupled with the high visibility cockpit, meant that the Lysander fulfilled its requirements as requested rather well.

Powered by the Bristol Mercury air cooled engine with the exception of the Mk2 (which used a Bristol Perseus 7), the aircraft packed two browning machine guns mounted in the wheel enclosures as well as one Vickers or Lewis gun that faced rearwards allowing the passenger to bring deadly force to bear against attackers from the rear. Additionally there were options for five hundred pounds of bombs to be mounted on stub wings on either side of the wheel spats.

The development aircraft first flew in 1936 and the first production entered service in 1938, being used for artillery spotting and message dropping. It did become clear that the Lysander was unsuited to the artillery role as it flew too fast. It was also not suitable to be used in combat missions as it flew too slowly and was not manoeuvrable enough. During the May and June of 1940 118 were lost over France and Belgium which represented around 60% of the total number deployed. Instead, they flew patrols off the coast of the UK until 1941 when the STOL capability suggested the Lysander as a potentially useful aircraft for “special operations,” in support of what was euphemistically named “irregular war.”

So it was that in 1941, No 138 (special duties) squadron was formed for the SOE. Its task was to keep alive links to the resistance in France and to both insert and pick up individuals and materiel in occupied territory. This is where the good visibility from the cockpit and the STOL capability- “landing more like an escalator than a lift” to borrow a phrase from the day- came into its own. These aircraft weren’t armed and received two modifications: a permanently fitted ladder on the starboard side and an under fuselage fuel tank which significantly improved the range. During the period to 1944 some 140 agents were inserted into France and a similar number recovered. These operations were carried out on short unprepared airstrips, at night and frequently lit by no more than three or four torches. You need skill as a pilot to do that, but you also need a good aeroplane.

It is a tribute to the capabilities of the pilots of the operating squadrons, the SOE operatives, the resistance forces and the aircraft itself that very little of the Lysander was known by the German forces during its operational duty and even though they captured one before the pilot could destroy it. History records that the lorry carrying the captured Lysander was hit by a train which finished off the job the pilot was prevented from doing. Thus it was that the enigmatic Lysander remained so.

Having said the foregoing, life flying a Lysander, (or “Lizzie” as they became known), was not altogether simple . There were traps that would cause problems for the unwary or incautious pilot. It has often been said that aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous, but to a greater degree than seafaring it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.

Attending to the elevator trim was most important as it became apparent during the initial testing that the elevator authority was not great. This means that flyers must carefully monitor the pitch trim in order to avoid problems during take off and landing. One practical outfall of this is that pilots must constantly use the stick to maintain a nose down position whilst accelerating for take off. A movement to a pitched up condition too early would lead to a stall at low altitude and speed, the effects of which would probably not be pleasant. Consequently, the variable incidence tail becomes particularly important and care must be taken to ensure that the trim wheel is operating properly as a part of the pre-flight check.

As I mentioned earlier on, pilots had no control over the fitted slats and flaps and they begin to automatically extend at around 110 mph. Slats are leading edge devices that increase lift at low speeds, sometimes by as much as 60%, but they do increase the stalling angle of the aircraft which is not advantageous when landing. This is because the slat causes a nose up attitude when flying. Flaps, which are situated at the trailing edge of the wing also bring about increased lift at low speeds, but they induce a “nose down” attitude in the aircraft and can also act as brakes at high deflections. It can therefore be seen that the use of both slats and flaps in unison can perhaps counter balance one another, but care must be taken when they are deployed during landing and take off.

The stall characteristics of the Lysander were also somewhat unforgiving. With a stall speed of around 65 mph it was likely that stall would occur on final approach if pilots weren’t careful. Such a stall invariably led to a wing dropping- not the best situation when one’s avenues for rescuing a difficult position are limited. This may occur if, during landing, the pilot fails to keep the weight off the tail wheel when touching down. An error like this may cause the slats and flaps to begin once again to deploy resulting in the aircraft returning to the air at much lower speeds.

The best approach for landing is generally at around 80mph, (at which point the slats are not quite fully extended), into a “three point landing” having maintained the stick at dead centre and adjusted rate of descent using the trim control. By touchdown, the slats are fully extended. With excellent rudder control right down to walking speed, the pilot then only has to concentrate on ensuring that when on the ground, he addresses the need to keep the nose slightly down whilst the speed bleeds off under braking.

Pilots also reported that it gets very hot in the cockpit which is uncomfortable. This is caused by the proximity of both the oil tank and the oil coolers which are very close to the pilot. The oil tank can be seen just in front of the instrument panel and the coolers are next to the pilot’s feet, along with rather a lot of pipework. Thankfully, the side windows can easily be opened and allow cool air into the cabin which I suspect is the only heat regulation method available.

Finally, in a quirk that is somewhat hard to fathom, the fuel gauge was placed behind and to the port side of the pilot. That such an important instrument was placed in such an inaccessible position is some kind of miracle. I suspect a pilot might be quite interested in finding out how much fuel he has left in the tank and also to be able to see this without putting his head on a gimbal (so to speak). I suppose that it is rather like placing the handbrake for a motor car on the parcel shelf and it is little wonder that this modification to a car’s controls has not yet been made.

Westland Aircraft built 1,786 units predominantly supplied to the RAF but also to the Indian Air Force, The Royal Canadian Air Force and The Egyptian Air Force. In civilian use they were used in Canada as crop dusters. Around 15 examples remain with two or three being restored to flying condition, but only one or two actually flying to this day. I would particularly direct readers to the Shuttleworth Collection where some very interesting photographs may be seen.

There are also some excellent resources available to modellers that will help them to complete their models to a high degree of accuracy and it will not be difficult to locate them on an internet relatively local to you.

I intend to produce a likeness of a special operations executive aircraft complete with boarding ladder and external fuel tank. These parts are not available in the kit, so they will have to be made from scratch and parts of this may be quite challenging. The finish of the aircraft will be the matt Black most often associated with this role and I hope that you may choose to visit my little corner of modelling land in order to point and laugh. I await your comments.