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O/T Mosquito Relaunch

I don't know if it has been posted elsewhere but I've been following progress of this in the warbird press. What the article doesn't say in detail is that Glyn Powell and his team have built an entirely new airframe to the original plans. All the metal fixtures, fittings, undercarriage, engines etc from an original Mossie or Mossies have been used but no aviation authority anywhere would sanction an original airframe flying due to deterioration of the glues since manufacture. Modern glues have been used to put the new airframe together and it should be at least as strong as the originals.

So what they'll have is a new aircraft with original fittings: that way it should last for years and keep on flying. This is only the first Mossie to emerge from this workshop, there's another in the works afaik. What I really want to know is when one or other will fly in the UK! Please please please please please.....
 
yes I did catch an item on telly here in NZ, interviewing the guys involved. The number of hours taken to set up jigs, glue and laminate, is incredible. but it makes you wonder just how the factories churned out these wooden marvels during the war... Admittedly having all the jigs in place would make it a lot quicker.
 
Ps: maybe thousands of people, each one their job exactly and just keep doing it: "the big factory..."
 
Well, De Havilland were pretty good at building wooden aircraft already, so they knew what to do and how to do it. The Dragon Rapide was built of plywood, as was the Moth Minor. This is the DH91 Albatross, built of ply and balsa sandwich just before WW2:-

DH91_Albatross_2.jpg



Post-war wooden aircraft included the Vampire and Venom, although they used metal where they had to like around the jet pipes... :icon30:
 
Interesting! That DH91 looks quite impressive for a wooden aircraft. Didn't know that about the Vampire either, De Havilland was certainly the right outfit to tackle the Mosquito specification.
 
Well with the cost of electricity these days (needed to smelt the bauxite) maybe we will see more aircraft made with materials grown using solar energy. It would also soak up a lot of labourforce, and provide a great set of skills to manufacture using wood and organic glues again :icon_lol:
 
AAAARGH! IT'S NOT A BLOODY BOMBER!

Sorry. I just had to let that out. Most of the news reports are calling it a bomber - it's a fighter-bomber. FB VI. The NZ report above seems to have got it right, but I couldn't really watch it properly.
 
The Kiwis workshops are where it's happening in warbird restorations to fly right now: Anson Mk.1, P-40, La-9, Mossie etc.

Another one close to my heart has arrived at Pioneer Aero this summer - a Tempest Mk.II......:jump::jump::jump:
 
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