Westland Lysander

See also: Westland

The Westland Lysander Avion of connection to the modest performances acquired a great fame thanks to its use for transport and recovery of spies and secret agents, in particular of the members of the Special Operations Executive or French Resistance. A pilot of Lysander having carried out 280 missions of this type testifies some in a work translated into French: Hugh Verity, " We landed nuit" , Vario editions. These missions consisted in joining nuitamment grounds of fortune listed and evaluated carefully by Resistance according to a precise methodology (coordinates, Altitude, course of the axis of bearing, length, nature of the ground, possible slope, surrounding obstacles, etc), all the useful information having been transmitted to London. The Navigation was done primarily by observation of the ground, which made the flights dependant on the phases of the Moon and the atmospheric conditions. Once arrived near his goal, the pilot located the ground thanks to fires lit on the ground by the resistant ones that the noise of the engine informed of its approach. The activity of Lysander was so well organized, and was subject to so rigorous safety regulations, that very few accidents occurred. In addition, the small size of the apparatus made a target difficult of it to locate and reach.

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