The Miraculous Mosquito
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.
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.
Join Date: Nov 2012
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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.
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.
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
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/p...rgetid=profile
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
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/p...rgetid=profile
