The VL Myrsky: Finnish Storm

The Finnish Air Force in World War Two achieved remarkable success with aircraft that other combatants considered obsolete.
But what the Finns really wanted was their own fighter aircraft, built to their requirements and from local material.

Sources for this video can be found at the relevant article on:

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[MPPelli]

The Myrsky II restoration project is getting on well. At the moment they are, among other things, working on putting the skin on the airplane (aluminium on the front part of the fuselage and plywood on the rear and the wings, which are still not attached), so it's really starting to look like an airplane. Considering the starting point was a mangled steel frame, it really is a huge undertaking of manual craft and skill, as basically every single structural part has to be hand made.

[kymensotaveteraanit]

Ed, thank you for noticing Finnish aircrafts, us Finns sure love them. There were plenty of earlier designs as well. On our channel, we have interviews of several Finnish WW2 Airforce veterans. Amongst them, Fighter Ace Antti Tani! Welcome to check it out.

[emergingloki]

"Overweight and suffering from stability issues."
Welcome to my world my Finnish friend.

[sueneilson]

Wonder what the Fins could have done with the CAC Boomerang. This rough, tough and pugnacious little fighter would have been right up their alley.

[quadri]

The Finns were quite underrated in the air combat department. Ilmari Juutilainen is prolly one of my favourite fighter aces during the conflicts, him and loads of other Finnish aces were just cool

[petritavi]

Thanks for this! And your "Myrsky" pronunciation is is just fine and understandable;)

[pasitalv]

Great stuff! Can't wait to hear your pronounciation of the DB 605 engined successor to this plane, the Pyörremyrsky. Only one ever built.

[lancerevell]

Interesting video. I'm an old (68 yo) aviation enthisiast, and I'd never heard of this aircraft. 😮

[Throne_Angel]

My mothers fathers father flew test flights with the VL Myrsky My-4

[linuschan]

Just like your video on the P-66, another excellent one, never seen so many pics of the Myrsky in one article before, well done mate.

[BadByte]

"Gargling blech" oof good burn. That made my day 👍

[billyhyde]

These videos about the lesser-known fighters of WW2 are fantastic. Have you considered doing one on the PZL P.11? Not only was it used by Poland at the start of the war and put up a brave fight, but it was exported to quite a number of other European countries.

[robertguttman]

VL also developed an improved fighter called the "Pyorremyresky". Unfortunately, it was powered by the Daimler-Benz DB-605 engine which, after Finland "changed sides", was no longer available. However, the prototype "Pyorremyrsky" was said to have been better than the Me 109 and would have been a formidable fighter if it had been available sooner.

[RaduB.]

Not bad!
This Storm even looks pretty good! 🙂

[terraflow__bryanburdo]

Lesson: when you use the Tibetan "good fortune" form of the swastika in baby blue instead of the twisted form in black, you have a better chance of surviving bad times as an intact nation.

[PeteSampson-quqb]

The performance of the Finnish fliers is truly inspiring and definitely proved that quality of pilots is more important than quality of aircraft. One realizes just how experienced they were, top to bottom, when you see that guys with the seniority of a squadron commander in larger airforces were element leaders for their entire career. This also meant that new pilots were surrounded by experts.

It's a pity the Western allies weren't closer with the Finns because they sure could have taught us a bunch about exploiting the strengths, while avoiding the weaknesses, of our planes.

[yes_head]

Those resourceful Finns. Kinda looks like an early LaGG design. But yeah, one can imagine the pilot's horror when the plywood panels start coming off under moderate G loads.

[finlandatwar]

Awesome video.
That's a really great source you used from Plane's Encyclopaedia... That chap must know his stuff... Certainly not self promoting or anything.

Just came across your channel, will be binging the videos.

[hullutsuhna]

about the Twin Wasp engines: Finland had a state-owned engine factory, but from what I hear it mostly spent the war(s) rebuilding existing engines (i.e. salvaging reusable parts from worn-out/damaged/outright destroyed engines in order to refurbish other worn-out/damaged/outright destroyed engines), I don't know what kind of machinery the factory had for making new parts, but I suspect there was a lot of working with hand-held tools.

[robertb]

I very much appreciate your explanation of the interesting and different aircraft.