Aircraft requests

[Johnny Curedents]

The Lysander III was used for night intrusions into occupied France, for dropping or picking up agents. Unlike earlier models, this one had a large fuel tank slung under the fuselage. Does anyone know how much that extended the aircraft's range? All the available info I find say its range was about 600 miles, but clearly that much extra fuel would have extended that.

 

[pbehn]

The Lysander III was used for night intrusions into occupied France, for dropping or picking up agents. Unlike earlier models, this one had a large fuel tank slung under the fuselage. Does anyone know how much that extended the aircraft's range? All the available info I find say its range was about 600 miles, but clearly that much extra fuel would have extended that.

Was it for range or endurance? Many of those missions took hours stooging around trying to find where to land, some were purely to pick up messages from agents by radio that was difficult to detect.

 

[Johnny Curedents]

I imagine it was probably for loitering. I also know they stuffed another fuel tank just behind the pilot, between him and any passenger (!). I'm not sure if this 'cockpit fuel tank' was also the case with earlier versions. It just strikes me that the underslung fuel tank must have extended the Lysander's range dramatically but no article I've found mentions the fact.

 

[fubar57]

In "Westland Lysander" - Mushroom Model Magazine Special, it says "...the endurance went up to something in the order of eight - ten hours....The loaded weight went up a massive 58% and cruise reduced about 25mph, but the range nearly doubled to 1,100 miles."

 

[Johnny Curedents]

Thanks! I figured it had to be a spectacular increase but couldn't locate any info about it.