It is indeed. We were able to do a Merlin swap, and match them up, when we were juggling requirements for the P-51, the Spit XVI, and the Spit IX under construction. It all worked out.
Here’s a photo of SL721 from 2009. We were flying back from OSH. The radio crapped-out in the Spitfire, so we flew formation for the 5 hours all the way back to Gatineau. Not the sort of thing you usually see when you’re driving and you glance back over-your-shoulder…
BTW — not exactly a warbird — although Vietnam counts of course — but here is a brand-new addition to the Collection.
It was previously owned by the Irving family of New Brunswick (yes, that Irving family!).
Dave
Sure. That’s all true. The Storch and the Cub-type aircraft are better at short-field. But essentially they are single-purpose aircraft. They go slow, don’t travel far, don’t carry much, and land short. That’s it.
The Lysander can do more. And back in the day it would get to central France and back in one night. You can’t do that mission in a Storch, even if you could carry enough petrol. Not enough load-carrying capability and too few hours of darkness.
I flew the Lysander this summer in several situations where the short-field capability was very handy. I only used a few hundred feet. It’s handy now, like it was handy then.
This photo I took at Mountainview, which is a WWII relief field for CFB Trenton. We were taking Air Cadets on Famil flights, but Trenton has no Avgas so we had to divert 15 nm to MV (where the Cadet glider operation is based) whenever we needed fuel.
I landed on the grass of the infield (just to the left of the picture), not on the runway, using about 500ft, because this allowed me to get to the pumps without having to taxi on pavement across a strong wind. (Lysander brakes now are not much better than they were then.) (And taxying a Lysander if it’s windy is usually of more concern than landing it.)
Anyway, during the summer, I used its short-field capability a number of times. But I also ferried from Ottawa to Edenvale without a stop, 250 sm into the prevailing west wind, with only internal fuel. And that is an fair indication of the aircraft’s utility.
Dave
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