I saw the newly launched Mosquito external model redo these days, and it didn’t feel particularly good.

[Krupi]

The irony here is that the material used to build the spitfire wasn't readily available in the UK, it just wasn't deemed a wartime material which had benefits when it came to procuring.

[Bozon]

As far as I know Balsa tree is not native to the UK and was imported from the Americas. So some wood had to be imported too.

 

It is not that there was a huge starvation to aluminum. There was some to go around, but it was monitored and rationed, so you could get aluminum just maybe not as much as you’d like and at a short notice. The wood was easier to get as much as you needed and when you needed it, without going through much bureaucracy.

 

The work force and means of production were probably the narrower bottleneck (I am guessing). All the metal workers were employed making everything from small fire arms through tanks to ships. Aluminum in particular takes special skills, apart from the usual iron/steel works. The wood workers on the other hand were not engaged much in wartime production and the demand for pianos was at a low…

Edited July 21, 2021 by Bozon

[grafspee]

I don't know how it was exactly, but after the war ended, there was a enormous steel shortage in UK, at that time almost everything was made of aluminium

Or maybe it was like that, Someone: hey Geoffrey you would not be able to build good twin engine modern fighter out of wood.

Geoffrey: what!! I i would not be able to build !!, hold my beer.

Edited July 21, 2021 by grafspee

[Krupi]

Actually De Havilland and the Mossie are famous for the opposite reason, he only had one big supporter in the government at the time Wilfred Freeman. The Mossie actual had the nickname "Freeman's Folly" due to his ardent support of the aircraft. 

 

De Havilland paid for the development of the Mosquito from his own wallet as he is was laughed out the room for suggesting a wooden aircraft with no armament other than it's speed. 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Krupi

[bart]

40 minutes ago, Krupi said:

Actually De Havilland and the Mossie are famous for the opposite reason, he only had one big supporter in the government at the time Wilfred Freeman. The Mossie actual had the nickname "Freeman's Folly" due to his ardent support of the aircraft. 

 

De Havilland paid for the development of the Mosquito from his own wallet as he is was laughed out the room for suggesting a wooden aircraft with no armament other than it's speed. 

 

 

Similar thing happened to Barnes Wallis and his Upkeep project, they thought he was suggesting the impossible!

 

Sometimes it's the very things that no one imagines anything of.....that do the things that no one can imagine.

Edited July 21, 2021 by bart

[Bozon]

1 hour ago, Krupi said:

Actually De Havilland and the Mossie are famous for the opposite reason, he only had one big supporter in the government at the time Wilfred Freeman. The Mossie actual had the nickname "Freeman's Folly" due to his ardent support of the aircraft. 

 

De Havilland paid for the development of the Mosquito from his own wallet as he is was laughed out the room for suggesting a wooden aircraft with no armament other than it's speed. 

 

The Mosquito was so against the fashion of the moment of 4-engined, all metal, heavy bombers with defensive guns, that bomber command could not wrap their head around de Havilland’s idea.

 

The book “Mosquito” by Shap & Bowyer (aka the Mosquito bible) describes very well the thinking process and experiments by which DH arrived at the twin-engine unarmed bomber concept. There was a method and meticulous calculations behind it, not just a vague dream, and this is why DH were so convinced that it would work.

 

What I find ironic is that while the mosquito is hailed as the unarmed bomber, more heavily armed night-fighters and fighter-bombers were built than unarmed bombers and PR models. In the grand scheme I would rate the actual significance of the night-fighters and the fighter-bombers to the war before the bombers. The PR mosquitoes would easily rate 1st in “contribution to the war effort per airframe”. 

 

 

[rkk01]

34 minutes ago, Bozon said:

The Mosquito was so against the fashion of the moment of 4-engined, all metal, heavy bombers with defensive guns, that bomber command could not wrap their head around de Havilland’s idea.

 

The book “Mosquito” by Shap & Bowyer (aka the Mosquito bible) describes very well the thinking process and experiments by which DH arrived at the twin-engine unarmed bomber concept. There was a method and meticulous calculations behind it, not just a vague dream, and this is why DH were so convinced that it would work.

 

What I find ironic is that while the mosquito is hailed as the unarmed bomber, more heavily armed night-fighters and fighter-bombers were built than unarmed bombers and PR models. In the grand scheme I would rate the actual significance of the night-fighters and the fighter-bombers to the war before the bombers. The PR mosquitoes would easily rate 1st in “contribution to the war effort per airframe”. 

 

 

That’s really hard to separate out…

 

The B variants were often assigned Pathfinder roles for target marking or Light Night Striking Force on diversionary raids to draw nightfighters away from the main force heavies - difficult to put a figure on the significance of that role.

 

Equally, the Mossie NF variants and RCM units of 100 Group made a huge, but secret, impact on the effectiveness of Bomber Command and eroded the ability of the Luftwaffe Nachtjagd units

 

So, basically there is a good argument for one of each…!

[Mogster]

On 7/21/2021 at 12:54 PM, grafspee said:

I don't know how it was exactly, but after the war ended, there was a enormous steel shortage in UK, at that time almost everything was made of aluminium

Or maybe it was like that, Someone: hey Geoffrey you would not be able to build good twin engine modern fighter out of wood.

Geoffrey: what!! I i would not be able to build !!, hold my beer.

 

Im not sure there was a shortage of steel and iron exactly, moreso the UK at least was bankrupt. The government bandied the term shortage around as an excuse for scrapping as much WW2 era hardware as possible and selling it for hard £££.

[rkk01]

So much hoping that we get to see the new model tomorrow - if Nick Grey has signed off the model then it could well be…!

[Bozon]

53 minutes ago, rkk01 said:

So much hoping that we get to see the new model tomorrow - if Nick Grey has signed off the model then it could well be…!

Shush!…

Damnit, now you’ve jinxed it…

[huchanronaa]

"Mosquito" is also the first Allied aircraft to discover the world's first jet fighter: the German Me262 fighter jet,. On July 25, 1944, a "Mosquito" reconnaissance plane encountered the Me262 over Munich.This "mosquito" fighter was discovered during photography at an altitude of 9,000 meters. The pilot, Lieutenant Wall, found a German aircraft approaching 400 meters behind the tail. Wall immediately dived to 8,500 meters with full throttle and reached a speed of 663 km/h. Normally, this is enough to get rid of German fighter  Chasing, but this time the enemy plane caught up with no effort. Wall turned five consecutive turns, and finally entered the clouds before escaping the chase.

The mosquito may have a light wooden body, no armor or turret, so it can fly at a high speed enough to get rid of the pursuit of the German fw-190 or bf-109 fighters, but as mentioned above, there is no way to encounter me262 jets. , , It depends on luck
Can the dcs mosquito fighter exhibit this characteristic?

Edited July 23, 2021 by huchanronaa

[huchanronaa]

Thanks to the wood structure, it is lighter and faster. As the fastest bomber before 1945, it can fly across the strait to bomb Berlin, then throw off the German aircraft and fly back to the British mainland. In order to reduce weight, it does not even have a machine gun on its body. In order to make the connection between the wing and the fuselage stronger, it used only one wing for a breakthrough, allowing it to traverse the fuselage. The fuselage and wing can be firmly fixed together with only 4 screws by inserting wood.

[grafspee]

I wonder how long wooden pistons would survive