The James Bond Airplane of WWII - Westland Lysander

[halogenfox]

Excellent commentary on a remarkable airplane! You are very correct, the men that flew these aircraft on the missions that they did, never got any of the credit that they deserved, and yet they kept on doing it! The Lysander was one of the tools that the the allies used to great effect in helping out all the bravest of the brave in the french resistance. I am immensely proud to say that this example is part of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, one of the finest collections of aircraft ever

[JimNtexas]

@halogenfox - The love and care that went into restoring this classic are very clear to even the most casual onlooker.

Thanks for keeping this historical aircraft flying!

[wahlia]

The Lysander mentioned often and lovingly in "Spy Princess" by Shrabani Basu, the life of War Hero and St. George Cross Winner, Noor Inayat Khan, code name Madeleine. Her Lysander flight got her safely to France only to see her eventually beaten and executed at Dachau. She was the last radio operator in contact with London. broadcasting and outwitting the Gestapo in Paris before the invasion. It is a fascinating and informative historical read, for which a movie is rumored to be in the works.

[JimNtexas]

@wahlia - Thanks for the comment, very fascinating!

[robinphillips]

This is one the greatest planes ever flown in my opinion. I remeber building models of this dozens of times when i was a kid. They still use this in alot of the "commando" (mini B&W) comic books, is a classic fav of theirs too ;-)

[JimNtexas]

This airplane was parked next to the Lancaster, Hurricane, Halifax and Spitfire. All of these were from Canada. Very interesting for those of us interested in the history of WWII aviation.

[Itsreload]

I can see a Jim's planes and history DVD set.

[DoomXexec311]

very cool!

[DumbDuck44]

thats a really cool looking plane, and great little history lesson as well. learn something new everyday. I wonder why they wouldn't just parachute peeps/supplies instead of risking a landing though, as surely you could hear a massive engine like that for miles!

[JimNtexas]

Often they did pararchute people and equipment, they had racks on the wings that could drop equipment canisters.

The problem is that they also needed to pick up people and take them back to England, plus a parachute is a less precises and more conspicuous event than landing in a field.

thanks for the nice comment.

[theSMYRNAcowboy]

Pretty cool.