Great news!
Now for the test programme...
The
real challenge of Lizzie flying is to climb to the cockpit without getting stuck half-way!
Tulio wrote:
Question about the Lisander's wing structure:
How are the wings mounted onto the fuselage? Is there a through spar (or whatever the correct term is) on top of the cabin, or are the wings attached to the fuselage and supported by the bracing you clearly see in the pictures?
In simple terms they are attached to a framework (rather like the T-6 rollover structure) inside the canopy middle section, and braced by the struts.
The
interesting fact is that the flaps are deployed by the inner pair of slats, which themselves deploy by the change of airflow over them - the pilot has no control over the flaps except by how slowly he flies.
To add to the unique characteristics - the tailplane (horizontal stabilizer) is moveable as an alternative to a trim tab; getting it in the wrong angle at take off or on a go-around can be fatal, as the elevator authority isn't enough to override the pitch-up.
groundpounder wrote:
is that an official rcaf paint job? never seen a combination like that before, i'm used to seeing all yellow.i'll bet it looks great up close !! interesting....., but i'm just not sure what to make of it.
As airnutz said, it's a standard Target Tug scheme, which was devised in the late 1930s in Britain and used by the Commonwealth countries (certainly the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Rhodesia) through the war and later in some cases. Despite the fact that many aircraft survived into civilian hands precisely because they were used as target tugs, it was a forgotten scheme until relatively recently in preservation - not aggressive enough for some.
The fact that the majority of fighter and gunnery crews found it hard to hit a barn door in combat is indicative that we should have had more TT and gunnery training, and today we should acknowledge a difficult and dangerous role - one that the Canadian Lysanders played a big part with.
They would tow a sleeve or banner target for either fixed gunnery from fighters or flexible or turret mounted guns as appropriate.
As far as I'm aware this is the ONLY airworthy aircraft in such a TT scheme anywhere in the world. The RAAF Museum has FB.30 Vampire in TT colours, the RAF Museums Hawker Tempest is in these colours and the Imperial War Museum's Mosquito is also painted in this scheme. All these have been painted/repainted in the last decade. (Sometimes the black-yellow stripes were only on part or the underside of the aircraft.)
The colours served two purposes - one to distinguish the tug from the target(!) and secondly that the aircraft was towing a(n effectively invisible) cable which could be lethal to a passing aircraft, tempted to 'bounce' a plodding machine...
The second reason is why training gliders and their tugs often had green-brown disruptive camouflage above and the stripes on the underside.
Another aspect of the diversity of W.W.II aviation highlighted. Well done, CWH.
Regards,
(Author of
the Westland Lysander, published by MMP Books:
http://mmpbooks.biz/mmp/books.php?book_id=84 )
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