All metal Mosquito ??

[dp_burke]

Well one learns something new every week at least, the Pluswood sheets would have had to be shipped across on transports then, or had they a plant in the UK. One of the things I suppose we always say is that the wooden sconstruction cut down on the use of imported aluminium, but if the Pluswood was being shipped across the Atlantic anyway....

Here is a little Popular Mechanics article about it, hope the link works:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ftc...squito&f=false

Interesting, thanks for the input.

Dennis

[Empiricist]

Dennis,

Thanks. It could not be a coincidence that the clipping indicated by you is of September 1943 and in November 1943 the American aviation press informed that the Pluswood delivers its materials for the British Mosquitos.

[Bill Walker]

By September 1943 the Mosquito was in full production at de Havilland Canada in Downsview (now part of Toronto). I wonder if this is where the US plywood was going?

[mhuxt]

Originally Posted by Empiricist

The WWII era American professional aviation press is full of extremely interesting articles on wooden technologies applied in the airframe structures written by the engineers, researchers, CEOs of various companies etc.

Writing his article on Mosquito Professor Nicholas J. Hoff foresaw very well such discussions as can be seen over here. He wrote among others:

"That wood construction can compete with and even surpass metal construction may seem strange to the nonspecialist in aircraft engineering."

Can you recommend any other reference articles / books? I'd be especially interested in the P-39 comparison, and in any info you might know of re: Soviet use of wood materials in aircraft construction.

Thanks again.

[mhuxt]

Originally Posted by dp_burke

Well one learns something new every week at least, the Pluswood sheets would have had to be shipped across on transports then, or had they a plant in the UK. One of the things I suppose we always say is that the wooden sconstruction cut down on the use of imported aluminium, but if the Pluswood was being shipped across the Atlantic anyway....

Here is a little Popular Mechanics article about it, hope the link works:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ftc...squito&f=false

Interesting, thanks for the input.

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Link works fine.

I can remember my old Granddad, who'd been in the Merchant Marine in the Great War, commenting on how crew morale was often dependent on the cargo carried, wood being top of the list...

[Empiricist]

Originally Posted by Bill Walker

By September 1943 the Mosquito was in full production at de Havilland Canada in Downsview (now part of Toronto).

That's right. The British "Aeroplane" magazine, Vol. LXV No. 1682, August 20th 1943, published an interesting article under the title of "Mosquitoes from Canada". They informed that the first two Canadian-built Mosquito Mk IVs landed in UK on August 9th, 1943. One of them was flown by the US civilian crew (captained by George Hersam); the second one was flown by the RCAF crew with F/O J. G. Uren at the controls.

Originally Posted by Bill Walker

I wonder if this is where the US plywood was going?

Could be. In fact the Mosquitoes mentioned by you had in them much more non-British materials and components than the US wooden materials only. Huge majority of those Mosquitoes elements was the North American continent-made. In fact they were the British-designed but North American-made aircraft of the US and Canadian elements. Perhaps that was the reason why those planes were so good because the Americans have always had the best chemicals for aviation veneers and plywoods (it was their big investment in aviation industry in interwar period). The British veneers and plywoods have never been so good and the Horsa case study in the CBI is good example, when that glider almost disappeared under the termites attack whereas the US CG-4A remained fully airworthy without any damages in its airframe.

The same "Aeroplane" issue, as above mentioned, informed as follows: "Mark I Mosquitoes built in Canada are already in service with the USAAF and RCAF on the American continent. Like those which have now been delivered to Great Britain , they are entirely Canadian-built except for certain fittings like hydraulic jacks which were sent over from this side of the Atlantic."

[Empiricist]

Originally Posted by mhuxt

Can you recommend any other reference articles / books? I'd be especially interested in the P-39 comparison, and in any info you might know of re: Soviet use of wood materials in aircraft construction.

Thanks again.

Give me some time -- will prepare a list for you.

When it comes to the Soviets I would recommend wartime issues of the German "Luftwissen" magazines. The British "Aeroplane" magazine, Vol. LXV No. 1682, August 20th 1943, published (page 202) small but very interesting article based on the "Luftwissen" mentioned, where the Germans analysed the airframes of captured Yak-1, LaGG-3 and MiG-3. The British titled their article "Russian Aircraft Timbers".

[mhuxt]

Many thanks for that.

[MarkRS]

Originally Posted by Empiricist

You did good job in this thread. You are absolutely right. The Mosquito was neither better nor worse than all-metal planes of that era. But in the field of wooden airframes it was high-tech aircraft in the 1940s circumstances.

Thanks. The construction of the Mosquito is still high tech even by today's standards. I found a 2007 paper in Portuguese describing its construction in arguement for using Portuguese cork in the construction of modern (civil) aircraft. I have great difficulty at work getting past the perception that wooden constructions are "old fashioned", when they are sometimes the best material for the task. I cannot tell you the number of cameras I have stabilized with wood to damp out unwanted vibrations. The nearest man-made composite is linen based phenolic.

[MarkRS]

http://web.me.com/lllanducci/EAA-138...ber%202009.pdf
Here is an interesting reference to Pluswood by the son/grandson of the company owners in which he states that: "At the start of WWII, the Government hired our Company, along with the others mentioned in the previous articles, to manufacture plywood for the British " Mosquito " bomber. Our Company shipped over 1000 train car loads of special, high strength plywood to England."

Here is another article from the same source:
http://web.me.com/lllanducci/EAA-138...uly%202009.pdf States that Pluswood provided 35% of the plywood for the British built Mosquito and Roddis provided the rest. It also states that Roddis provided the plywood for the Canadian build.