AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 23 / 71

Plate 23 of 71 · Second World War · Army co-operation and special duties monoplane

Westland Lysander

Lysander IIIA, painted as V9552, The Shuttleworth Collection’s airworthy Westland Lysander IIIA (civil G-AZWT), which went to Canada in 1942 as RCAF target tug 1582, came back to Scotland for the Strathallan Collection in 1971 and joined Old Warden in 1998, with its 870 hp Bristol Mercury XXX radial, painted since 1999 as ‘V9367’ of No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron, the aircraft of Peter Vaughan-Fowler, who flew agents in and out of occupied France: black overall, dull red ‘MA’ ahead of the fuselage roundel and ‘B’ behind it with ‘V9367’ aft, Type C fuselage roundels and fin flash, red and blue roundels above the wing only, the long-range ventral fuel tank between the spatted wheels, the fixed boarding ladder on the port side and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips, as it is flown from Old Warden.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as V9552, The Shuttleworth Collection’s airworthy Westland Lysander IIIA (civil G-AZWT), which went to Canada in 1942 as RCAF target tug 1582, came back to Scotland for the Strathallan Collection in 1971 and joined Old Warden in 1998, with its 870 hp Bristol Mercury XXX radial, painted since 1999 as ‘V9367’ of No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron, the aircraft of Peter Vaughan-Fowler, who flew agents in and out of occupied France: black overall, dull red ‘MA’ ahead of the fuselage roundel and ‘B’ behind it with ‘V9367’ aft, Type C fuselage roundels and fin flash, red and blue roundels above the wing only, the long-range ventral fuel tank between the spatted wheels, the fixed boarding ladder on the port side and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips, as it is flown from Old Warden. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.0 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Lysander IIIA modelled here.

History

The Lysander

The Lysander was Westland’s answer to Air Ministry specification A.39/34 for an army co-operation aircraft, a machine to spot for the artillery, photograph enemy positions, drop supplies and carry messages for troops in the field. Arthur Davenport and Teddy Petter designed it after asking the pilots who would fly it what they wanted, and the answer was a good view and the ability to use small, rough fields. They gave it a high wing that tapered towards the root, so the pilot could see past it, automatic leading-edge slats and slotted flaps for very low landing speeds, and a fixed undercarriage on two spatted cantilever legs. Harald Penrose flew the prototype, K6127, from Yeovil on 15 June 1936.

No. 16 Squadron took the first Lysanders in June 1938, and by the outbreak of war the RAF’s army co-operation squadrons had them. In France in 1940 they proved far too slow and vulnerable against German fighters, and many were lost in the weeks before Dunkirk. The type found other work: patrolling the coast, dropping dinghies to airmen in the sea, towing targets, and in the Western Desert and Burma doing the army co-operation job it had been built for. The Mk III and IIIA had the Bristol Mercury XX or XXX radial, and the IIIA had twin machine guns for the gunner. Westland and National Steel Car in Canada built 1,786 in all, and the last were retired in 1946.

Its best-known work was secret. From 1941 Lysanders of No. 138 and then No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron flew agents of the Special Operations Executive and the secret services into occupied France by moonlight, landing in fields lit by a few hand torches held by the Resistance, and brought people out on the same flight, often within three minutes of touching down. For this the Lysander III (SD) had its guns removed, a long-range fuel tank under the belly and a fixed ladder down the port side to the rear cockpit, and was painted black. The pilots flew alone and navigated by map and moonlight from Tangmere and Tempsford. The Shuttleworth Collection flies a Lysander in 161 Squadron colours; the RAF Museum displays R9125, and IWM Duxford holds others.

This airframe

Lysander IIIA V9552 (G-AZWT)

V9552The airframe modelled

V9552 was built by Westland as a Lysander IIIA and shipped to Canada in 1942, where it served the Royal Canadian Air Force as target tug 1582 until 1946. After the war it passed to a private collector in Canada, and in 1971 Sir William Roberts bought it for his Strathallan Collection in Scotland, registered it G-AZWT in 1972 and restored it to fly; it first flew again in December 1979. Grounded in the 1980s, it was bought by the Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society and joined the Shuttleworth Collection in 1998. In 1999, with help from the family of Peter Vaughan-Fowler, who flew Lysander pick-up operations into France with No. 161 Squadron, it was repainted as his aircraft, V9367 “MA-B”, and after a further restoration it flies from Old Warden, Bedfordshire. The model shows it as flown today: black overall, dull red “MA” ahead of the fuselage roundel and “B” behind it with “V9367” aft, Type C fuselage roundels and fin flash, red and blue roundels above the wing only, the long-range ventral fuel tank between the spatted wheels, the fixed boarding ladder on the port side and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips.

See it at The Shuttleworth Collection

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Lysander in 4 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 71 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.