Strangest British Light Plane of WW2

World War II was a breeding ground for some of the most unusual and ambitious aircraft ever built. Among these experimental designs stood the Westland Wendover, a light aircraft with a twist. Instead of the typical single tail fin, it carried a wide tailplane with twin fins and even a rear turret armed with four .303 Browning machine guns, an armament more at home on a heavy bomber like the Avro Lancaster than on a small plane.

So why was such a design attempted? We’ll be diving into the P.12 Westland Wendover, one of the strangest British light aircraft of the war.

The Westland Wendover started as a liaison and reconnaissance aircraft. This incredibly strange, small-looking plane was fitted with a British bomber tail and turret. Often described as resembling a cross between a Lysander and a Lancaster, it was among the more unusual creations of British aircraft engineers during the Second World War. Built only as a prototype, it was developed as an offshoot of the Westland Lysander.

It first saw flight in 1941 and initially experienced stability issues due to the distribution of weight. After these issues were resolved, it managed to fly well and was quite comparable to the original Lysander. Testing took place over several months, and the addition of the turret helped to assist this slow aircraft.

The Lysander proved far more useful in clandestine roles, ferrying agents into occupied France, than in the job it was originally built for. Designed for artillery spotting and carrying supplies and messages to frontline units, it fared poorly against Luftwaffe fighters during the Battle of France. In May to June 1940, the type lost 118 of the 175 aircraft deployed over France and Belgium, a grim statistic that made its vulnerability painfully clear.

Slow and lumbering, the Lysander was almost a sitting duck, and Westland decided the answer was blunt and simple: more firepower. They grafted the Lysander’s forward fuselage to a broad-beamed rear with twin fins and installed a power-operated Nash & Thompson turret armed with four .303 Browning machine guns, enough, they hoped, to give any German interceptor an unwelcome surprise. The prototype first flew in July 1941 and was reported to handle well, with performance broadly comparable to the standard Lysander.

Since the aircraft was so light and slow, the added weight would slow it down even further. Thoughts of adding an even more powerful engine were floated. However, because of the cost and other competing factors, this was brushed off. Ultimately, it would remain a prototype aircraft.

A decision had to be made if it’s worth putting time and money into the Wendover. At that stage, it was decided that these resources would be better spent elsewhere. The RAF was looking to produce more bombers and fighters, and putting effort into the Wendover, which would ultimately be a sitting duck, would not be worth it. Thus, plans for widespread manufacturing of the plane were scrapped. The prototype would ultimately be shelved, and the aircraft itself broken down for much-needed parts.

Although it performed extremely well in testing, this unusual British light aircraft was never deployed in combat, becoming another example of a lesser-known World War II aircraft.