De Havilland Mosquito

[GTX]

We always bring up COIN aircraft, why not the Mossie?  Turboprops & large amounts of ordanance carried in the bay & under the wings?

I am SO trying that.

Maybe as either a RAF, RAAF or RNZAF contribution to Vietnam and thus Commonwealth counterpart to the USAF's Invaders:



Regards,

Greg

[kitnut617]

As for the Napier Dagger, it was part of the engine proposals in the beginning.

Now that interesting Lee,  I've got a number of books on the Mosquito and have only just finished reading the section on Mosquitos in the Putman book by A.J.Jackson and there's no mention of it there, where did you manage to find that snippet of information?

Here's a bit of info I found out from reading the Putman book though which you might know about,  F.Halford designed the basis for the Dagger, De Havilland had an agreement with Napier that they build their bigger engines over a certain hp.

[kitnut617]

Cheers Lee, I found another issue on Barnes and Noble, I don't buy through EBay

Edit: bought it.

[sequoiaranger]

>It's why I mentioned the Vulture, okay, real world it was sh!te, but if RR's engine development had gone according to plan it, would be interesting to see what kind look it would have given.<

The Vulture engine was fitted to the Avro Manchester AND to the Hawker Tornado (Typhoon-looking aircraft). Though the Vultures were vilified and troublesome on the Manchesters, the few Tornado prototypes had no trouble at all with them. I especially like the look of the double-row of exhausts.

I will someday do a Hawker Henley with this double-row exhaust look, but it will be RR Exe-powered (necessitating cooling flaps for the air-cooled inline engine) instead of Vulture. As for the Mosquito, I think the Vulture is too big an engine/cowling for the slim Merlin nacelles (though I suppose the nacelles could be changed also).

My dream-whif Mossie will have Griffons and five-bladed props.

>Except that the Mosquito simply wouldn't have lasted long in that [Vietnam/jungle] environment.  Their wooden structure was eaten to hell by termites whilst it absorbed moisture like a sponge.  You simply have to look at how long they lasted in the far east with the war against the Japanese.<

As far as moisture is concerned, it seems the British Isles are pretty damp almost all the time (I don't live there, but have visited there in all seasons--ALL of them wet)---if it were strictly a moisture-absorption problem, why were they OK in Britain? At least as far as termites are concerned, it would seem that Sea Mossies on board aircraft carriers would be spared insect infestations.

[kitnut617]

Reading my way through the Sharp/Bowyer book, the moisture problem in the UK seemed to stem more from incorrect sealing of all the access panels.  The problem was resolved after a lot of trial and error.  A more worrying major problem was the burning through of the cowling panels which wasn't totally overcome even with all the modifications done to them, these were made of metal BTW.

There was a plan for a scaled up Mossie bomber, from what I've read it would have been just that, but there's not much in hard evidence as to what it would have looked like.  It would have been a good candidate for the Vulture I think as the planned engine for it was the Sabre in high altitude mode.  Of course there was a 'four' engined bomber planned too with Merlins or Griffons, both were to be un-armed for defense, speed being the prime factor.

[kitnut617]

Just finished the 'Far East' chapter in the Sharp/bowyer Mosquito book, seems like initially early built Mosquitos assembled using 'Casein' based glue were sent out there and after only a few months a Mosquito broke up in mid-air when one of it's wings came apart.  All Mosquito were then grounded and inspected, with further aircraft being found to have glue seperation.  The solution was to use aircraft solely assembled using formaldehyde based glue and the Mosquito didn't have any more problems with humidity or moisture (or bugs), in fact they served for a good number of years in the Far East, even after the war, where the last Mosquito operation was done on Dec 15 1955.

[Mossie]

Don't think it's been mentioned yet, how would you go about a single engined Mossie or Hornet?  I don't think it's a case of simply bolting an engine onto the front, you'd need to reduce the fuselage length & probably relocate the cockpit.  You'd probably be better off with a new design, but maybe one that was largely influenced by the Mossie or Hornet?

[sequoiaranger]

>Don't think it's been mentioned yet, how would you go about a single engined Mossie or Hornet?  I don't think it's a case of simply bolting an engine onto the front, you'd need to reduce the fuselage length & probably relocate the cockpit.  You'd probably be better off with a new design, but maybe one that was largely influenced by the Mossie or Hornet?<

Perhaps the key to the "single-engined Mosquito" might be assymetry, like the Blohm und Voss BV-141. For a plane as large as the Mosquito, the engine might need to be an "Eagle" or some other 3000hp-type, considering that the original Mossie in later marks had that or better with two engines.  Assymetry, however, would be OK for a recon model, but heavy ordnance in either "fuselage" would un-balance the plane unless you carried external ordnance.

"They" slapped a turbo-prop onto the nose of the B-17, and it had more power than the original four engines combined, so I don't know why something similar couldn't be done with the Mossie if "we" wanted to keep the familiar configuration.

[Mossie]

Hadn't thought of an assymetric Mossie.  I was thinking on more conventional lines with a Centaurus for a Mossie & probably a Griffon for the Hornet.  The Eagle is a good idea for the Mossie.  I think that single engined Mossie development would be something along the lines of an A-1E Skyraider.

[kitnut617]

  & probably a Griffon for the Hornet. 

Considering that the two Merlins had just over 4000 hp together on the Hornet, one Griffon would be just a little bit under powered I think.

[Mossie]

  & probably a Griffon for the Hornet. 

Considering that the two Merlins had just over 4000 hp together on the Hornet, one Griffon would be just a little bit under powered I think.

I don't mean a straight re-engine of the Hornet/Mossie, I think they'd it'd be more of a completley new design but very much influenced by their shapes & construction.  So lose some length in the fuselage, the engine mounts & fairings, new undercarriage, & you start to loose a bit of weight so a Griffon might just do?

[jcf]

The basic shapes of the DH 93 Don could be used as an inspiration point for a single engine Mossie type.

Jon

[kitnut617]

My Air-Britain quarterlies arrived today, there's a nice article in one of them on the Calquins plus quite a few photos including one showing them being assembled, just like a Mossie --- almost.  A comment to one photo is that they could almost be compared to a Beaufighter as well as the Mosquito, a photo of the engines do look remarkably like Beaufighter nacelles and u/c

[Mossie]

I'm sure there was mention of the type or a variant with either a single Centaurus or Sabre. Pretty sure it's before thinking crystalized around the Merlins.

My 633 Sqn FBX "Special" is now on the blocks and will end up as D-Danny (in overall PRU Blu) from Operation Rhine-Maiden, one of the easier to find  books in the series.  There are ten altogether - i thought there were four at most!

I've got a three volume book with 633 Squadron, Operation Rhine Maiden & Operation Crucible, they're the easier ones to get hold of.  Amazon do a fair few of the others, some at bargain prices, some ridciulous.  I've not read them yet, I read the first few pages of 633 Squadron to get a feel for it & it reads just like a strip straight out of Battle!.  How'd you find them Lee?

[kitnut617]

I wish someone - anyone - would release a kit of the Calquin.  There was a vacform kit some years ago but it's rough at best.

Our best hope is MPM/Special Hobby but they seem to be redoing stuff that Airfix & Frog released years back.

Llama Models does the vacuform in 1/72 (1/48 too), I got one a couple of years ago from Aviation World Toronto.  Last time I looked at AWT they still had some but right now they are doing a website upgrade so you can't view what they have.  As far as I know they are still available direct.

http://llama84.tripod.com/