If *you* think that you've got a though restoration project...

.... a visit to the Mosquito Museum near Colney hatch kinda puts that
back into perspective again.

Like, trying to solve the problem of fitting two RR Merlins back into
an airframe that you can't really move around, plus the engine
mountings are about 2.5m of the ground. Makes refitting something like
a Benelli Sei engine look like a walk in the park.

They're also restoring one of the DeHavilland planes that took part in
the England-Australia Airrace in (I think) 1934. With the paint sanded
off it suspiciously looks like one of the balsa-and-plywood model
planes some of my mates used to build (and crash). Only bigger. And
some nutters flew that to Oz...

However the fans of Brit bikes will be placated by the fact that not
only British bike engines leak oil.

 

Mosquitoes were taken off the flying list when the wooden airframes
started deteriorating. IIRC they were plywood - laminated, with epoxy
gluing the whole thing together.

The DH racer was called the Comet. The Mosquito was really built using
what they learned from the racer.

Merlin engines are ace, no question. Mine Dew, the Daimler Benz 601 (as
fitted to the ME109) was just as great an engine. I always have a
suspicion that there are two reasons why it's not regarded as a classic:

1. They gave it a number, not a name.
2. It doesn't whistle and warble like a Merlin.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember
(The Older Gentleman) saying
something like:

Probably fish glue, in those days. Or a horrible concoction of snot and
horse shit.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

Nope, it was epoxy. First real use of the stuff, IIRC.

 

And, of course, it was on the losing team.

I have a feeling it didn't cut out like the Merlin if you went from level
flight straight into a dive. Something to do with fuel injection as opposed
to carburettors. Not sure about that, try not to do it on my bike.

Steve

 

Early Merlins did cut out from the effects of negative G on the carb,
yes, while the injected DB engine didn't worry about it. Push the stick
forwards on an early Merlin, and the engine stuttered, so you had to
half-roll and then dive. A DB601-engined plane just went straight down.

But by 1941 they'd cracked the problem on the Merlin.

 

They did a bit of a comparison on Robboe Coltrane's excellent Trains Planes
and Automobiles show, talking to a German guy who had garage loads of the
Messerschmitt engine. He reckoned it was superior because the turbo or
supercharger (can't recall which) had variable boost, depending on air
pressure, ones they stuck on the Merlin just had 2 stage boost. (Or am I
thinking about the wrong engines?)
Ian

 

I think you've got it right. IIRC the Merlin had a two-stage
supercharger (not turbo) and the DB was variable.

Where's Dodger or Weggy when you need them?

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

They are indeed plywood, covered in fabric. Fastest plane used in WWII
up to about 1944, and relying on its speed alone. *No* armour plating
at all.

One of the blokes I talked to at the museum confirmed that there
aren't any airworthy ones left - the last one belonged to BAe and
disappeared in a showed of splinters at an airshow, leaving the crew
dead. No-one's tried to get one airworthy again since then although
appearantly a few people in Canada are (or at least were) trying to
restore one to airworthy condition.

Ah yes, DH-88 Comet, not to be confused with the later passenger
jet. Like the ones shown here:

http://www.pjcomputing.flyer.co.uk/comet/links.html

Ooooh, and some 'merican has had a flying replica built. Nice.

<wanders off and checks spec>

How much fuel? FFS, that's a flying Molotov cocktail - I've seen the
fuselage of the one they're currently restoring and it's not very
big. How the hell did they manage to get 258 *gallons* of fuel stashed
away in this plane?

Although I must say I'd prefer the black & gold colour scheme used on
another Comet in that race, piloted by a Mr & Mrs Mollison[1]. Judging
by the B&W photos of it, it looked proper sinister.

*sigh*

I've never heard one running, and I'd really like to. According to
NiceOldBloke, one of the two Merlins fitted to the prototype Mosquito
is in good enough condition for RR to run it on a bench, but the other
one's had it.

Oh, and there may be two more reasons why the DB 601 isn't that much
of a classic:

3) Wrong country
4) It worked and didn't leak oil

[1] Mrs Mollison was slightly better known under the name Amy Johnson

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

.... using single-point FI like on your aunt's Metro. Although I think
the rumours that suggest that the Metro was still using the same
system were slightly exaggerated.

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

And what really amazed me was that they used the same construction
principles on the Venom jet fighter. I didn't quite believe my eyes
when I noticed that the paint on one of them was lifting and there way
plywood underneath, but looking at another one - well, the nose
section - that had the paint stripped off confirmed that it was indeed
plywood.

 

That's correct. The Vampire and Venom were jet fighters made (at least
partially) of wood. Utterly incredible, when you think

 

Indeed. The Metro's system was nowhere near as sophisticated.

 

They gave the Luftwaffe a really hard time, not least because they had a
low radar signature, being mostly wooden. The first semi-stealth
aircraft?

The LW never really got to grips with the Mosquito. They had nothing
comparable. The nearest thing was the Junkers 88, itself a very fast and
versatile aircraft, and by using nitrous oxide (seriously!) to boost the
engines, they could just get a JU88 to fly high and fast enough to have
a pop at the Mosquitoes.

But the casualty rates in Mossies bore out the facts - you were quite
likely to survive the war if you flew them. Very fast, very high.

 

Timo had an ancestor working at R-R? Cool.

 

Andy Wegg was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

That was the BAe one, correct?

According to the bloke at the museum the one in Canada my not fly
after all. Something to do with the fact that every time a 60-year old
plane falls out of the sky, the requirements for restoration get
jacked up.

Nice. Oh to have the money...

 

Andy Wegg was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

"Comet"

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Ancestor in Spirit, maybe. Although in that case, it may have been
sufficient to push the engine past him and then check if anything
broke.

 

Andy Wegg was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

You cnut

 

Andy Wegg was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Not to mention the fatigue issue. I think if that hadn't happened the
gubmint would've have started buying Boeing.

Hard to say, even with 20/20 hindsight. And no-one knows if it had
changed anything anyway, given that the world aircraft market is hard
pressed to support the number of manufacturers we've got now, after a
lot of them already went south.