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Westland Lysander Mk IIIA (SD) by Uncle T

706 bricks.

My take on the Westland Lysander Mk IIIA (SD) where SD stands for "Special Duties". It's an approximation, not a one to one replica.


Info from Wikipedia, edited.

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The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War.

After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's short-field performance enabled clandestine missions using small, improvised airstrips behind enemy lines to place or recover agents, particularly in occupied France with the help of the French Resistance.

Despite its appearance, the Lysander was aerodynamically advanced, being equipped with fully automatic wing slats and slotted flaps, and a variable incidence tailplane. These refinements gave the Lysander a stalling speed of only 65 mph (56 kn / 105 km/h).

The high-lift devices gave the Lysander a short take off and landing (STOL) performance much appreciated by the Special Duties pilots. "It was possible to bring a Lysander down to land, if not like a lift, at least like an escalator".

Special duties
In August 1941 a new squadron, No. 138 (Special Duties), was formed to undertake missions for the Special Operations Executive to maintain clandestine contact with the French Resistance. Among its aircraft were Lysander Mk.IIIs, which flew over and landed in occupied France. While general supply drops could be left to the rest of No. 138's aircraft, the Lysander could insert and remove agents from the continent or retrieve Allied aircrew who had been shot down over occupied territory and had evaded capture. For this role the Mk.IIIs were fitted with a fixed ladder over the port side to hasten access to the rear cockpit and a 150 gallon drop tank under the belly. The machine guns in the wheel housings were also removed.
In order to slip in unobtrusively Lysanders were painted matte black overall. Operations almost always took place within a week of a full moon, as moonlight was essential for navigation. The aircraft undertook such duties until the liberation of France in 1944.

For SOE use the rear cockpit of the Mk III (SD) version was modified to carry up to three passengers in case of urgent necessity as they were fitted with a rearward facing bench for two passengers and a shelf at the rear of the compartment which could also serve as a seat for a third passenger.

The pilots of No. 138, and from early 1942 No. 161 Squadron, transported 101 agents to and recovered 128 agents from German-occupied Europe.
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CONTROLS
Alt controls to fly
W/S: Variable throttle.
S: Ground brakes. Be gentle or it will tip forward.
A/D: Ground steering / Yaw.
Up/Down arrows / Mouse: Pitch.
Left/Right arrows / Mouse: Roll.
L / Headlights: Landing lights.
X / Disable Steering: Flaps.
Hold X / Invert Steering: Wing slats. I chose to make them not automatic since they make no difference in the game but they look cool and for RP reasons.
PageUp/PageDown: Variable incidence tailplane. This is incremental so can be used in varying amounts at speeds under 300 kph to keep the nose up.
Fire Action 8 / Num 8: Drop external tank.

For short take off, extend flaps (X) and tilt the tailplane max up (PageUp) and go. Be ready to reduce the angle of the tailplane quite quickly since it's quite powerful, and the flaps should be retracted over 250 kph.

For short landing, reduce throttle almost completely and reduce speed. At 250 kph extend flaps and then increase the angle of the tailplane. You can land at speeds as low as 120 kph comfortably. Brake carefully on the ground to avoid tipping forward.

Since the fluid dynamics in the game works nothing like the real thing the flaps you see actually do nothing since them dropping would just tilt the nose down rather violently, so the actual extra lift is provided by hidden elevators in the tailplane.

Feel free to edit, but if you reupload publicly in any way please acknowledge the original creation and creator.

Have fun!