As the war progresses and reveals many specialist fields of endeavour for the fighting forces, it is only natural that inventive ability should produce new types of weapons to meet the case. In the air, which is a rapidly expanding and extremely variable field, the production of the Westland Lysander machine is the latest British answer to a demand for a particular type of aeroplane. Before the war, the Royal Air Force was an independent unit, co-operate ing with the Navy and the Army but principally inspired with the idea of independent action, unlike other air forces which form an integral part of the armies and navies of other powers. Since the war, things have changed, and an indication of the new status of the RAF. is revealed in the production of this new machine, which is the first British aircraft designed from the wheels upwards for army cooperation duties. On a recent tour of the west country defence establishments, the Westland Lysander was "demonstrated for the King and Queen. It is unlike any other aircraft in the Royal Air Force both in appearance and in characteristic performance. It is not a fast plane as modern machines go, its top speed being a little over 220 miles an hour but it has remarkable climbing and handling qualities. From a short run, it is able to shoot up into the air like a rocket and it can be landed on the pro-verbal "pocket handkerchief." These are valuable qualities in a machine which may have to operate from small or temporary aerodromes, or land and take-off in open country in the firing zone. A parasol wing—which is high above the fuselage—and the use of automatically-controlled Handley-Page flaps and slots assist in achieving this rapid take-off and in the control of the machine at slow speeds. For observation purposes, it is able to remain under full flying control at 55 miles an hour and then dart cif like a dragon fly at its maximum speed. A controllable pitch airscrew is another feature Fitted with a Bristol Perseus engine of 905 horse power, the Lysander has a maximum speed of 230 miles an hour at 15,000 feet, and a ceiling of 26,000 feet, about five miles, which it reaches at the rate of 5,000 feet per three minutes. It has three guns, two fixed for forward fire, and a moveable gun housed behind the pilot and operated by the observer for defence from hostile aircraft, So successful has the Lysander proved for its special work of army co-opera tion that large numbers have been supplied te the Allied and other governments for it is essentially the soldier's aeroplane and its name is singularly apt.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.