The Miraculous Mosquito

[tdracer]

Rather nice writeup on the Mosquito:
The Miraculous Mosquito (http://www.historynet.com/the-miraculous-mosquito.htm?source=ddjan142015&utm_campaign=article&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=text)

[artee]

Terrific article. I hadn't realised that it was the original MRCA.

[LowObservable]

Nice piece (if rather familiar)...

The biggest thing that it misses is that the structure was truly innovative, the load-bearing skin being based on a sandwich of plywood (high tensile strength) and balsa (compressive strength). The principle is exactly the same as a Cirrus or a Rutan design, using fibreglass and plastic foam.

Another point is that casein glue - which was also critical because of strength and water resistance - was not standard wood glue, which is was made from hides (hence, "glue factory"). It had been known to the Egyptians, almost lost, and rediscovered by boatbuilders (an innovative bunch*) in the 1900s.

However, the vulnerability of casein to biological attack was a spur behind the development of epoxy glues - which in turn became the matrix materials for fibreglass and carbonfibre.

* There's a reason that GKN's composite center of excellence is on the Isle of Wight.

[ORAC]

Built using Duramold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duramold) - an American invention (http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCgQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcals.wisc.edu%2Fars%2Fkemp%2Fdocuments%2FHR LBConnor2007.pdf&ei=TfQnVZyFNITUaoj7gbAB&usg=AFQjCNHSYYkoaFffhtzNjTJqPTflzIdtTQ&bvm=bv.90491159,d.d2s)....

[NutLoose]

Was it?, no heating nor pressing was involved, it was laid up over concrete shaped formers and simply glued together, they would build the two halves of the fuselage and fit them out then join them vertically.

Here you go the new build ones and pictures galore

http://www.mosquitorestoration.com/

http://www.mosquitorestoration.com/gallery02.shtml

[Rossian]

....one of the elements to be studied was materials and the set text was "The new science of strong materials or why we don't fall through the floor". I can't right now remember the author's name but he gave beautifully clear explanations of the different stresses in materials and there was/is a good bit about the Mosquito and why it came apart in the Far East.

The Ancient Mariner

PS it was T101 so it was a while ago.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Set Text was J. Gordon - top book for any budding engineer; I've always recommended it!

[Tashengurt]

Ah T101. An excellent course!

[Danny42C]

Low Observable (#3),

Your: "However, the vulnerability of casein to biological attack" was all too clearly demonstated in India/Burma in the summer of '44 !

They fell to pieces in mid-air in the monsoon heat and damp :eek:; the main spars delaminated when the glue failed. There were fatalities.

D.

[LowObservable]

If your Mosquito smells like overripe Camembert do not attempt to fly it.

Orac - Not Duramold. That was pressure-formed, phenolic plywood all the way through (and I imagine rather harder to work with). Phenolic plywood, which was then quite new, was used in the Mossie, but only in the quite thin face sheets of the sandwich.

And very well deserved hat-tips to Prof Gordon.

[tartare]

There's an interesting video somewhere that shows footage from the war - of furniture factories being co-opted to help turn out Mosquitos.
Amazing aircraft.

[tdracer]

Nice article - I've had a fascination with the Mosquito since I watched '633 Squadron' with my dad roughly 50 years ago. It was clear to me even then (~10 years old) that my dad had a special respect for a wooden bomber that was as fast as a fighter plane. He was a WWII vet, but he fought in the Pacific theater so it's unclear if he actually saw them in combat action (he never mentioned it if he did - unlike the P-38, F4F, F6F, and B-17).


One thing I wonder about - balsa grows in the tropics, during much of the war I'd think that balsa might have been hard to source. Anyone know if there were issues with the balsa supply?

[ORAC]

Balsa is native to South America - Mexico south to Brazil.

[NutLoose]

One thing I wonder about - balsa grows in the tropics, during much of the war I'd think that balsa might have been hard to source. Anyone know if there were issues with the balsa supply?

I would imagine no more difficult than sourcing aluminium in quantities, and if your ship was full of balsa it would probably be difficult to sink ;)

[Hempy]

Built using Duramold - an American invention....
Ah the assertive assurance of youth :}

But wait...

http://users.skynet.be/BAMRS/dh103/pics/fuselage6.jpg

An absolute marvel, and one of the most graceful aeroplanes ever to fly.

p.s any truth that the later versions contained concrete?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

My grandfather was a shop foreman (electrical) on the Mossie. In his spare time he volunteered at the Officers' hospital in Hatfield House, where he developed and patented a portable lung fluid drainer that provided much relief, which was commercialised after the War. I always remember him saying that there were a lot of clever men working on the Mossie, and he never regarded himself as anything special.

[LowObservable]

Hempy - Interesting photo. Concrete may have been used for the molds. It's cheap and stable. In the early 90s the Phantom Works made 3D molds by cutting and stacking chipboard, using a computer-guided bandsaw.

[NutLoose]

If you read my post I said it was a concrete mould, they used it because with was a stable material that wasn't adverse to temperature changes, thus ensured uniformity in size.

Incidentally the DH Museum at Salisbury hall actually has a damaged half of the original concrete mould on display for the Sea hornet. See

http://www.airfieldarchaeology.co.uk/uploads/7/3/3/0/7330321/930445_orig.jpg

from

Salisbury Hall - Airfield Archaeology (http://www.airfieldarchaeology.co.uk/salisbury-hall.html)

[NutLoose]

Facinating read here on the construction

GLTA - Glued Laminated Timber Association - GLULAM (http://www.glulam.co.uk/performanceAircraft.htm)

[rlsbutler]

ORAC (#13) - elsewhere in Wikipedia, Ecuador is said to produce 90% of the world's commercial balsa.

My family was involved in the model hobby trade from the early fifties. In those days model aircraft only used that wood. At that time US interests had an effective monopoly and the wood came to us from Ecuador through mills in the States. I guess that was a continuation of the situation prevailing throughout WWII.

I wonder if the Ministry of Aircraft Production preferred to order finished balsa components for the Mosquito factories, not because milling it was difficult but to minimise the "bulk-out" factor in its sea transport.

In the 1970s our model manufacturers found they could import logs direct, still only from Ecuador, and a few mills were established in Great Britain. As the hobby has shrunk, I suspect we are back to an US monopoly with UK representation.

[LowObservable]

Thanks, NutLoose - interesting stuff.

One thing that made the Mosquito work was that the structural design was adapted to the material - versus the early tendency with carbonfibre to build "black aluminum" structures.

[dragartist]

This must rate as another one of the most interesting threads on here and in it's early days.
I became involved in a small way in cleaning up some bits of a crashed mosquito for the Pathfinder Museum at Wyton. All the wooden bits had disappeared along with some of the mag alloy. The bits I had were mangled bits of undercarriage. I managed to get one leg up to a standard suitable for display. The hydraulic jacks still have quite good looking and smelling oil in them. the rubber pipes were just a little crazed and whipped with cotton hemp string for protection. Still in reasonable order. some of the electrical wire insulation was still good. The legs contained a stack of interlocking rubber oval mouldings that buffed up nicely. the most interesting bit to me was an SRBF (Synthetic Resin Bonded Fibre) - Paxolin to some! machined fitting. when cleaned up an given a light spay of PU lacquer one could clearly see the inspectors signature and part numbers which had been handwritten in HB pencil.
I do hope the bits are still on display. I have a few bits left in my garage that are a bit beyond repair. OK another excuse for not getting the car in the garage but how many of us do these days!
My Dad worked on Mosquitos in the 50s
I too was brought up on Gordons Book the New Science of Strong Materials. If I remember there is a story about resins made by the Damar Company various grades starting with Damard, Damarder and Damardest! I hope I have this right. If not I know someone will correct me. Do I also understand that some of the resins were developed at Duxford premises in 1934 by professor Norman De Bruyen, which became Ciba Giegy and now Hexcel where modern composites and prepregs are made for the A350.

[Mechta]

RLSButler,

There are still a couple of British balsa suppliers who cut their own wood; SLEC, which sources its balsa from Papua New Guinea and The Balsa Cabin which uses wood from Central America. There are suppliers, but I can't tell if they cut orr just supply wood cut by others.
My understanding is that SLEC use the Papua New Guinea company as they created their own plantations to give more control over the balsa quality than other companies which just harvest what they find growing naturally in Equador.

Balsa Wood (http://www.slecuk.com/balsa-wood/Balsa-Wood-2.html)

This shows some pictures of the plantation and nursery:

http://http://www.pngbalsa.com/gallery.php

and this shows the Americans don't have it all their own way:

http://www.zoominfo.com/s/#!search/profile/company?companyId=348550614&targetid=profile

[Octane]

The miraculous Mosquito is the operational one built in Auckland, NZ!!