OT: Mosquito flies again. The only one.

[EddyCurr]

This is a (interesting?) story from our local newspaper in Ashburton, New Zealand.

http://www.aviationnews.co.nz/news/9...is-a-Mosquito/

A sad tale.

In my community, Mosquito B.35 VP189/CF-HMQ is on static display at the Alberta
Aviation Museum, but looks like it could be fired up on a moment's notice. Their
website appears to have been co-opted, so I offer this image by author Bzuk,
hosted by Wikipedia.


To the south, after a tumultuous history, Lynn Garrison's Mosquito RS700/CF-HMS was
delivered to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta where it is to
resume a long-stalled restoration.

[EddyCurr]

Thanks Evan
I question the claim as the only one airworthy.
Kermit Weeks has his at Oshkosh and there is one sitting at Victoria Air Service
almost ready to go.
Dave

In Mr Weeks' blog for Oshkosh 2010 (halfway down), he mentions there about
TT.35 RS712 that:

"I got a chance to hook up with an old friend, the World’s Greatest Aircraft
Collection’s DeHavilland Mosquito! We were very fortunate it was on display at
the EAA Museum and not in Miami when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. It has
been many years since it has flown (1989) and once I get some additional
hangars built at Fantasy of Flight, I intend to truck it back to Florida where
we will go through it and get her flying again."

The last airworthy Mosquito, T3 RR299/G-ASKH crashed 1996.07.21 during an
airshow flight at Barton. Kevin Moorhouse and Steve Watson perished.

[loose nut]

The Mosquito impressed the Germans enough that they decided to make there own version of it. They even named theirs the Moskito, it had a performance equal to the British version, also made out of wood but the only factory that could make the glue for them was bombed and that was the end of the project. Only 2 where made.

[Evan]

I have worked on wooden aircraft. The most notable was a 3/4 scale replica of the Mustang. I had to make new ailerons for it because of water damage and rot. I don't care much for wood working although I am OK at it. In aircraft it is an entirely different story than building a chest of drawers. All solid wood is perfectly clear and must have grain with a slope of less that one inch in 12 feet. That wood is usually sitka spruce although some pine or hardwoods may be used in places. The birch plywood is excellent to work with, much like sheet metal. It amazes me how it can be made with five plies just 2 mm thick (.079").

[The Artful Bodger]

We have a Simmonds Spartan on display at our museum, it is a rather pretty little biplane from 1929, The fuselage is pretty much monocoque 3mm ply.

BTW, this biplane has four identical, and interchangeable wings. Components of the tail, fin and horizontal stabiliser, rudder and elevators are interchangeable too.

We have a few wooden framed gliders on display too and one is shown without fabric covering, some people are amazed at the thin sections of ply used to reinforce the corners etc.

[topct]

The owner says about the resoration "It's a lost art that we dont have in the United States anymore."

Sorry, I call BS on that...

We have these folks here in Spokane doing some very nice work.

http://home.comcast.net/~biplane0/

[lazlo]

A Mosquito could fly the same bomb load to Berlin as a B-17 bomber

That didn't make sense to me: the B-17 is a massive bomber. I just looked it up, and the B-17's payload is 8,000 lbs. The Mosquito's is 3,000 lbs. Now, with drop tanks, the B-17's bomb load drops to 4,500 lbs, but a similar fuel overhead would apply to the Mosquito as well.

But most importantly, the Mosquito was very lightly armed, and not meant for deep penetration missions. The B-17 was literally a flying battleship.

[The Artful Bodger]

The Mozzie could bomb Berlin carring a 4,000LB "Cookie" bomb and would fly relays of missions to Berlin, landing back home and taking off again the same night!

[The Artful Bodger]

But most importantly, the Mosquito was very lightly armed, and not meant for deep penetration missions. .

Mosquitos made daylight raids over Berlin including on Hitler's birthday, you cant get much deeper than that..

[willmac]

The Mosquito could and frequently did carry 4,000 bomb loads- a cookie bomb was 4,000 lbs and the Mosquito was used to carry these. It was lightly armoured but it was extremely fast - quicker than virtually any fighter of the time and it had a good range. Despite or because of its minimal armour, losses were not as high as other bomber types.