Lysander nickname?

[ICT_SLB]

There's a great example in the Udvar Hazy at Dulles:

[drawbarz]

Hi all,

I was under the impression that the tandem wing turretted 'Lizzie' was known as the Westland P12 Wendover...

I maybe completely wrong.

Regards

John

[aviate1138]

Spot on actually.

" In this form it was used in trials intended to attack German invasion barges.

K6127 was extensively modified to another intended form of strafing power against ships or ground troops. The fuselage was shortened 1.45 m (4 ft 9 in) to 7.85 m (25 ft 9 in) and a tail turret mock-up (to carry four guns) was fitted. A second wing (de Lanne type) with full-span elevators and twin endplate fins and rudders, was fitted beneath the fuselage, just in front of the turret. This increased the wing area from 24.15 sq.m (260 sq.ft) to 36.46 sq.m (392 sq.ft). Flown by the company’s test pilot Harold Penrose it handled well, however none were ordered.

The aircraft is also known as "Wendover" and "Tandem Wing"."

[India Four Two]

Lysander Crop Sprayers

KW mentioned

Few Lysanders lasted beyond WW.2, some surviving briefly as crop sprayers.

And here they are:



This picture is from one of my favourite, but little known books about Canadian aviation history: Flying the Frontiers by Shirlee Smith Matheson.

Four ex-air force pilots formed the company [Westland Air Services] in 1947. They purchased four surplus Lysanders (CF-DGI, CF-DRL, CF-FOA AND CF-GFI), two-place high wing monoplanes powered by 900-horsepower radial engines that could carry payloads of up to 1,400 pounds. Westland was the only company in the world to operate Lysanders commercially.

More details from here: http://www.erudit.org/revue/phyto/20.../008900ar.html

Also in 1946, Westland Dusting Services, based in Edmonton, Alberta, was established by E.S. (Ted) Holmes. He chose the Westland Lysander, a British warplane that had been built under licence in Canada. Those war surplus aircraft were available from War Assets at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and Suffield, Alberta, at a cost of between $50.00 and $250.00 each. To equip these planes for crop application work required little basic alterations. The 95 gallon (360 L) Lysander fuel tank was used to carry the liquid agricultural spray material, and a new 45 gallon (170 L) tank for the aircraft’s fuel was constructed in the centre section behind the pilot’s seat. Within one yr, Westland had four of these modified aeroplanes. While applying chemicals to a crop, those aeroplanes commonly flew at a height of between 2 and 3 m, at a speed of 225 km per h. At that time, the Department of Transport required the pilot to wear a parachute, a regulation that was waived soon after that Department was convinced that more than 80% of their flying was done below 10 ft (3 m), thus making parachutes quite useless. Although that company did very good work, there was not enough of it and Holmes sold the company in January 1948 after only 2 yr of service. The new company, calling itself Westland Spraying Service Ltd., of High River, Alberta, bought two more Lysanders, but it too soon found there was not enough demand for their services and the company went out of business in 1950 (Milberry 1979).