A Metal Mosquito
Interestingly, pictured in ‘From Bouncing Bombs to Concorde’ a biography of Sir George Edwards is something called the Metal Mossie, Vickers Type 432, Barnes Wallis had a hand in the design and a prototype flew in 1942. To what extent this can be considered an equivalent to the wooden wonder is debatable although Edwards stated in retrospect that he expected it to be abandoned in favour of the wooden version.
A wooden aircraft does seem to hold the promise of a stealth capability, especially against the comparatively low frequencies of the 1940’s German radar. There is a certain irony here, given much of Britain’s later efforts, which seem to indicate, if not an ignorance of radar cross section, at least a cheerful disregard for it. - I think mainly of such slab sided marvels as the Lightning, the TSR2 and the Tornado.
The Edwards book also includes an amusingly captioned photograph of Sir George being interviewed in 1959 for BBC TV by Raymond Baxter. Entitled ‘In the Hot Seat, somehow I think not.
Only a 50 MPH speed improvement, for the removal of turrets? That’s not too shabby when your top speed is only 280mph, and there’d be an increase in altitude, it would be another 20 years before the strategic bomber stopped seeking safety by flying as high as possible.
The Luftwaffe had a few NOX equipped night fighters, and had it come to perhaps they’d have come up with a machine with a bit of endurance as well. But as Dyson puts it, without the gunners, even with losses, the total souls per aircraft lost is reduced. But he maintains that the RAF wouldn’t try, even on a few aircraft, the effect of stripping the turrets out and fairing them off.
Instead the defence systems grew heavier, with Monica, the rearward looking radar, ostensibly to warn of night fighters , but it couldn’t distinguish between them and the rest of the bomber stream, moreover some night fighter were equipped to home on its signals.
Last edited by Jetex Jim; 11th Feb 2008 at 20:55.
Reason: spelling