"Highball" Sea Mossie

[Taiidantomcat]

Raising the stakes with every post i see 

[Hman]

Mouth watering...

Just to get you in the mood how about this - http://www.youtube.com/user/BattleOfTheBeams#p/c/0BDB76F1B1CBA672/2/QUCo0qIhgdU  (from 33 seconds onwards)

[sequoiaranger]

I had a previous link to that same Highball launch against the battleship Malaya on YouTube, but the last time I tried it it had been pulled. Thanks!

[GTX]

This photo:



Makes me think a prone pilot version would also look cool.

Regards,

Greg

[Pablo1965]

Go number of cuts and work, but it is on track to have the desired shape, you just need to hit it with a hammer, well done.

[sequoiaranger]

Turning the hacked-up Mossie fuselage over to expose its belly, I measured and cut open the extended bomb-bay that will hold my trio of Highballs (the original Mossie carried only two). Shown below is the "tray" holding the three Highballs that will be set in the bomb-bay. The white one is "Wooksta"s, but you probably can't tell which bay is from the extra set he sent me. The diagonal pipes are apparently the "air turbines" that backspin the Highballs at 1000 rpm for delivery. I had to cut and adjust the air-deflection flanges in front and in back of the trio (not shown), but again the extra set I received saved the day. I will probably paint the Highballs gun-metal blue-gray with a single wide white stripe somewhere (so that photographs can see/calculate the spin).

The two-holed pieces are my first (top) and final (bottom) attempt at the asymmetric Flounder canopy openings (thank goodness I had spare fuselages!). The navigator/bombardier will have just a head-hole (he'll get a nice view when he slithers down to the glass nose for the final run-in to target).

[upnorth]

Very cool stuff!

The only thing I might have done differently, would be to stay witha single, asymetrical cockpit canopy and a "coal hole" beside it for the other guy.

Sort of a harbinger of the Sea Vixen arrangement, being as how both the Mossie and Vixen both came from the DeHavilland stable.

[Captain Canada]

Crazy, ugly, yet cool and beautiful !



Love the three bomb arangement.

[sequoiaranger]

>Crazy, ugly, yet cool and beautiful!<

Crazy? Ugly? Ya wanna see "crazy, ugly"? Just look in the mirror!    Kidding!

>Love the three bomb arangement.<

Thanks. I felt I had to keep the center-of-gravity below the center-of-lift of the wing , so had to adjust the placement of the trio slightly aft of the original position (that is, the original two-Highball bay is now slightly farther back with the addition of the extra Highball up forward). (Note position of trailing edge of wing with rear bombbay fairing--front fairing enlarged a bit as well)



>Very cool stuff! The only thing I might have done differently would be to stay witha single, asym[m]etrical cockpit canopy and a "coal hole" beside it for the other guy.<

Sorry, don't know what a "coal hole" looks like. I would love an explantion, please. As I have it planned, the dome for the nav/bomder is very small in diameter, but "taller" than some of the sextant domes seen on other bombers.

Yes, the look is "very different", probably warranting a double-take from Mossie lovers if it is put on display. Yet I think it keeps much of the Mosquito "look and feel"--that is, it still LOOKS powerful and fast, and the viewer will probably recognize the tailplane shape, the wing shape, the nose, and general arrangement. And, given my devious, twisted mind, I would not think there would be anyone else out there demented enough to have made anything like it!

[Leading Observer]

Coal Hole - a British phrase dating to the days when city houses had a celler under the pavement[sidewalk] for keeping coal.  :thumbsup:This was a dark space covered with a metal lid - hence the coal hole on the Sea Vixen, Canberra etc

[sequoiaranger]

Still can't envision what a "coal hole" would look like on an aircraft, sorry, unless it is just a side-window flush with the fuselage (like Avengers or Skyraiders had).

An experimental Mossie had an "umbrella"-like dive brake near bulkhead #5. I'm not going to do that, but it is intriguing. Instead, I will have two "A-36"-style, but curved, dive brakes on both upper halves of the fuselage. These would help quickly reduce airspeed on a Highball run, if the approach was too fast. Plus...

The Flounder will have a detachable tail (at the 5th bulkhead) with a third (if you count the double-tail-wheel as two) "tailwheel" coming down between the "v"-shaped tailhhook. It is essentially a "stand" with a caster on it. There are spring-loaded quick-access panels on either side of the bulkhead for the ground crew to reach into. The #5 bulkhead has quick-release cable mounts for the control surfaces, tailwheel and tail-light, and explosive bolts holding two plates (one for the tail; one for the fuselage) together. When the Flounder lands aboard a carrier and taxis to an elevator, the wings fold up and crew rush to put the "third wheel" down and detach the tail (put on a special trolley) so that the works can fit in the elevator to be brought below. And there's more...

[upnorth]

My appologies for the lack of clarity on the term "coal hole" in the context of the Sea Vixen.

The Sea Vixen had a crew of two side by side. While the pilot had a proper bubble, the radar operator was burried in the fuselage. His access to the aircraft was a flat panel nearly flush with the fuselage. The mk.1 panel was solid witha small window in it, while the mk.2 had the panel made from perspex:


net photo

It was called the "coal hole" as it was very cramped and dark in there.

[PR19_Kit]

The Canberra PR9's 'coal hole' was also for the Nav, but in that case he sat right in the nose with his entry via the hinged nose cone. His only outside vision was via two very small side windows level with his head and the periscope that looked out through the floor. He couldn't even see the pilot, which the Sea Vixen Nav could do via a large slot between the two cockpits.

[rickshaw]

The Canberra PR9's 'coal hole' was also for the Nav, but in that case he sat right in the nose with his entry via the hinged nose cone. His only outside vision was via two very small side windows level with his head and the periscope that looked out through the floor. He couldn't even see the pilot, which the Sea Vixen Nav could do via a large slot between the two cockpits.

Something I've been trying to figure out about that arrangement.  Did he have an ejector seat and did it have a blow-out panel, immediately in front of the windscreen?  The Airfix kit, which formed the basis for my long-wing prototype PR9 has a stencil indicating that, which would make his seat inline with the pilot's.  Yet the kit has it in the same position as the B(I).8's, beside the pilot.

Sorry for the thread hijack. 

[sequoiaranger]

>Sorry for the thread hijack.<

Don't be, unless it goes on and on. I always enjoy learning new "vernacular" as it applies to aircraft. I was especially interested if the "coal hole" moniker applied to my Flounder, as I would certainly use that phrase in the backstory if it had applied.

My Flounder's main mission is first for "Highball" actions against warships, then merchant ships, then "conventional" bombing missions or photo-reconnaisance. With no ordnance, the extra horsepower of the Griffons (c.2000 hp apiece vs 1650 for the Merlins), the "streamlined" nose, one less excrescence in the tail, and "roller doors" for enclosing the "open" bomb-bay made the Flounder a sleek and REALLY FAST "Mossie".

For decoration, I found a more appropriate "cartoon" giraffe for my nose art than the one I pictured in an earlier post. The tail will have a white circle with the "hat in the ring" insignia of the Lafayette Escadrille (remember, this Flounder is supposedly flying off the American carrier "USS Lafayette" made from the French liner Normandie). I have a modified F5F Skyrocket fighter made for the same carrier, and it had the "Indian Chief" motif of the Lafayette Escadrille on it, but it shoulda-oughta had the Hat-in-the-Ring, and the Flounder the Indian Chief. Oh well, so sue me!  



I plan to put "mission markers" on, using typical bomb markings for regular missions, and a cartoon highball (martini glass) to depict "Highball" missions. The martini-glass decals came from the unlikely source of little girl's fingernail "decals":