No one was injured when a rare Second World War-era Lysander made an off-airport landing near Hamilton, Ontario, on Saturday. The aircraft was on a local sightseeing flight. Only the 64-year-old pilot and a 61-year-old British woman were on board when the engine failed. The aircraft, one of 42 warbirds operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, had taken off from the museum near Hamilton and was at about 1,000 feet when the engine quit. The pilot put the aircraft down in between windmills on a field in nearby Cayuga. The aircraft was damaged but first indications are that it is repairable. The aircraft’s design and lineage no doubt helped the pilot get it down in one piece.
Lysanders were designed in the mid-1930s by Westland primarily as a light transport and liaison aircraft but they were among the first to employ STOL features like self-deploying leading edge slats. Although ungainly looking, the big high-wing single’s short-field performance on unimproved fields earned it a pivotal role in clandestine operations in Europe. Lysanders were used to insert and extract agents behind enemy lines. Lysanders were used as target aircraft after the war and CWH’s aircraft is painted in that yellow and black “bumblebee” livery.
