VL Myrsky

The VL Myrsky was a Finnish World War II fighter aircraft originally developed by Valtion lentokonetehdas for the Finnish Air Force.

The first Myrsky prototype flew on 23 December 1941 when it proved to be overweight. Test flights with three prototypes showed some structural problems during high-speed tests. This resulted in all three prototypes being destroyed during test flights; two test pilots died, one was seriously injured. Aeroelastic flutter, which was a poorly known phenomenon at the time was determined to be the cause. Resolving the flutter problem took almost a year.

Series production started in autumn 1942with the Myrsky II. Total production was 51, consisting of 47 Myrsky IIs one Myrsky I and three Myrsky I pre-production aircraft. Structural issues kept it from being fully operational, resulting in its primary use as a reconnaissance aircraft.

The Myrsky was removed from operational use in May 1947.

Photos of scale models of the VL Myrsky can be found here.