ARCo Lysander flies!

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Member for

14 years 3 months

Posts: 1,205

Looks like V9312 had a successful flight test at Duxford yesterday!

https://www.facebook.com/aircraftrestorationcompany/photos/pcb.1063460500477283/1063454883811178/?type=3&theater

Just bought my ticket for the September airshow, so here's hoping!

EDIT: Apologies, for some reason forgot to look on the Duxford Diary thread!

Original post

Member for

20 years

Posts: 3,902

No apologies needed. After 25 years graft, it surely deserves its own thread !

ARC have received many plaudits over the years, but still so well deserved.

I am reminded of the amazing sight perhaps 20 years ago of THREE Lysanders in formation at Flying Legends. Maybe we can see it again one day.............

https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7271/8074659436_652932212f_b.jpg ( photo of formation )

Member for

18 years

Posts: 243

It's great news. It would be nice to see 3 Lysanders again, but one thing we will hopefully hear again is the sound of 6 Mercury engines flying together in the shape of the Blenheim, 2 Lysanders and 2 Gladiators.

Member for

14 years 3 months

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Definitely! I'd love one day to see a Flying Legends sequence simulating an early-war mission in the Med, with the Blenheim and two Lysanders being attacked by the 109e and CR42, with two Gladiators and a flight or two of Hurricanes beating them off. What a sight that would be! (Oh, and throw in Swordfish W5856 for good measure...)

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15 years 11 months

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The Lysander looks stunning, well done to all involved. :-)

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24 years 2 months

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25 years .......!! Work began on V9312 back in 2005 with the wings in building 66 with the fuselage following on later.
I think there may be some confusion with ARCo restoring the IWM Lysander before that

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20 years

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I am sure you are right. I had an awareness of a Lysander lurking in a shed for a great many years, just did not twig that the airframe was actually not the same..

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21 years

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I am reminded of the amazing sight perhaps 20 years ago of THREE Lysanders in formation at Flying Legends.

Indeed, I was there.

One was Shuttleworths obviously, and one the now grounded Sabena Oldtimers Lizzie, but who owned the third one and what happened to it....?

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11 years 9 months

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The other one was ARCo's first Lysander, was it not? Sold to Kermit Weeks and, shock, hasn't flown for quite a long time.

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20 years 4 months

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I took this photo at Kermit's Fantasy of Flight in 2002, I guess this was V9312 before ARCo got their hands on it.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1862/29412411007_fda899f500_c.jpg
IM000827_resize by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

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20 years 4 months

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That article states that it's the Canadian example that's for sale. The Sabena Old Timers foundation does have a partially restored Lodestar for sale but I cannot find anything recent about their Lysander.

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15 years

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Archer I think you’ll find Kermit’s is a different one, I helped dismantle it at PPS for shipping to him and as far as I know he still has it.

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24 years 2 months

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IIRC, the Weeks Lysander used to be owned by Wessex Aviation rather than ARCo (although ARCo operated it)? Fondly remember Lee Proudfoot's sprightly displays in it back in the 90's. It hasn't flown since leaving the UK.

Congratulations again to everyone on V9312!

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24 years 2 months

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The photograph looks very much like G-BCWL on arrival.

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13 years 10 months

Posts: 409

Archer's photo is of Lysander V9545, which Kermit Weeks still has (coded BA-C), which was G-BCWL when based/flying in the UK. It has not flown ever since being brought to the US. It spent a number of years on static display at the Florida Air Museum, but then four years ago Weeks had it removed from there and it has been disassembled in storage at Fantasy of Flight ever since.

The ARCo Lysander V9312 (G-CCOM), which has now just flown (for the first time since December 1944), was also owned for a time by Kermit Weeks, prior to ARCo acquiring it in 2003. From what I've read, no restoration work had ever been performed on it prior to ARCo acquiring it in 2003.

Unfortunately, due to Kermit Weeks having owned both V9312 and V9545 (the one he still owns), there are a lot of photos on the web of V9545 that are incorrectly labeled as being V9312.

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20 years 4 months

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I think that it is V9312 in my photo. I took that photo in March 2002 and according to the article trumper linked to, V9312 moved to ARCo in December 2003, via Fantasy of Flight. Also, if you compare the photo on V9312's Warbird Registry page here: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/lizzieregistry/lizzie-v9312.html with mine, I can see some similarities.

Member for

19 years

Posts: 1,177

It is G-BCWL in your photo Archer. Believe me I know as I've been in the company and around Duxford for a long long time and have intimate knowledge of V9312. The latter had no wood or fabric covering when we acquired it from Kermit and BCWL was actually painted by us here at Duxford into that scheme when we were operating it on behalf of Brian Woodford.

Hope this clarifies the issue.

Roobarb

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18 years 4 months

Posts: 2,810

Much is written about the Lysander and SOE, however,in terms of hours flown and lives saved there is the role of search and rescue.
This extract gives background
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QiyQDgAAQBAJ&pg=PP38&lpg=PP38&dq=Lysander+search+and+rescuer&source=bl&ots=zqO97Uk7rS&sig=4vdq2j2pCsTzLgQTjRxXSp9fWVI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1hIuUs5TdAhUrB8AKHSDUB_8Q6AEwCXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=Lysander%20search%20and%20rescuer&f=false

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Would be nice to have a credit for my photo Propstrike. Cheers

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20 years

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Indeed, a credit would be super, but I did not know who the photographer is/was, which is why I did not post the image, but rather a link to address where it was to be found.

The only text to be found on the Yahoo generated image is some refererence to the worlds best photos of the Norwegian airforce, so it may be that someone else has copied and re-posted your picture.

I agree that wherever possible, photographers should be credited.