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PMN1
19th May 2009, 01:18
What did the RAF ask for in its A.39/34 spec for Westland to offer the Lysander and did any other companies bid for it?
PMN1
19th May 2009, 20:09
Some replies from the Secret Projects board

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6838.new;topicseen#new

The Lysander carried light bombs on stub wings, what would be the effect of the Lysanders bombload (500lb?) on their performance if carried by the F5/34 contenders (or F37/35), possibly with reduced guns/cannon?
PMN1
23rd May 2009, 21:18
The Lysander was about the same size overall as the P.9 and ultimately the Whirlwind, what if Westland got imaginative with the spec and offered something like an earlier equivalent of the P.9/Whirlwind but with two seats or one of the other contenders offered a fast two seat twin-engined aircraft??
curmudgeon
24th May 2009, 03:20
The Lysander was about the same size overall as the P.9 and ultimately the Whirlwind, what if Westland got imaginative with the spec and offered something like an earlier equivalent of the P.9/Whirlwind but with two seats or one of the other contenders offered a fast two seat twin-engined aircraft??
The Lysander was an army liaison aircraft. It had the capacity to carry bombs, but it wasn't a bomber. A high-speed twin-engined aircraft would have been rejected instantly. The aircraft needed to take off and land on short, unprepared airstrips, carry staff officers between HQs etc, etc ... think Feiseler Stork
PMN1
24th May 2009, 03:47
The Lysander was an army liaison aircraft. It had the capacity to carry bombs, but it wasn't a bomber. A high-speed twin-engined aircraft would have been rejected instantly. The aircraft needed to take off and land on short, unprepared airstrips, carry staff officers between HQs etc, etc ... think Feiseler Stork

Ah, but would it have been automatically rejected, this is 34/35 when rearmament in the UK starts to gather pace and someone offers a high performance aircraft, admitedly for one spec but with a lot of potential for the Shadow Factories that are in the process of being started.

This is the perfect time for a company to suggest an 'out of the box' thinking, lets face it, the Battle and Blenheim only got Shadow Factory production because they were there at this time.