Comet down at shuttleworth
Discussion
hidetheelephants said:
The Mosquito is stressed skin and made of wood; I don't know if the construction methods are the same, but stressed skin and wood aren't mutually exclusive.
Yes, the DH.88 airframe is both stressed-skin and almost entirely made of wood (essentially everything apart from engine and landing gear mounts and some non-structural bits like wing fairings which were more practical to form from aluminium).It's often said that the Mosquito's wooden construction was forced by wartime expediency. While being able to use non-strategic materials and dispersed production was very useful, the Mosquito really just reflected DH's state of the art in the 1940s. Which was using wood laminate and ply bonded together into very aerodynamically efficient shapes that would not be so practical to make in metal (vis: the difficulties encountered in getting the Spitfire to mass production).
For the Mosquito DH was building on gained experience from the 88 Comet and the 91 Albatross - it wasn’t a concept drawn from the needs of war.
The British aircraft industry was rather shamefully lagging when it came to moving to all-metal and stressed-skin airframes, especially for civilian aircraft.
2xChevrons said:
Yes, the DH.88 airframe is both stressed-skin and almost entirely made of wood (essentially everything apart from engine and landing gear mounts and some non-structural bits like wing fairings which were more practical to form from aluminium).
It's often said that the Mosquito's wooden construction was forced by wartime expediency. While being able to use non-strategic materials and dispersed production was very useful, the Mosquito really just reflected DH's state of the art in the 1940s. Which was using wood laminate and ply bonded together into very aerodynamically efficient shapes that would not be so practical to make in metal (vis: the difficulties encountered in getting the Spitfire to mass production).
For the Mosquito DH was building on gained experience from the 88 Comet and the 91 Albatross - it wasn t a concept drawn from the needs of war.
The British aircraft industry was rather shamefully lagging when it came to moving to all-metal and stressed-skin airframes, especially for civilian aircraft.
Making a jet fighter's fuselage out of wood was oddly impressive though.,It's often said that the Mosquito's wooden construction was forced by wartime expediency. While being able to use non-strategic materials and dispersed production was very useful, the Mosquito really just reflected DH's state of the art in the 1940s. Which was using wood laminate and ply bonded together into very aerodynamically efficient shapes that would not be so practical to make in metal (vis: the difficulties encountered in getting the Spitfire to mass production).
For the Mosquito DH was building on gained experience from the 88 Comet and the 91 Albatross - it wasn t a concept drawn from the needs of war.
The British aircraft industry was rather shamefully lagging when it came to moving to all-metal and stressed-skin airframes, especially for civilian aircraft.
de Havilland became very good with designing stressed wooden monocoque structures. The three classic designs that utilised this method of construction were the DH88 Comet, the DH91 Albatross and the DH98 Mosquito.
The Mosquito came about because de Havilland felt they were being under utilised in the war effort due to the fact that they mostly did not manufacture metal aircraft (the DH95 Flamingo being a bit of outlyer) and therefore were not considered completely capable of building a modern and capable front line aircraft. After some hesitation, the Air Ministry eventually saw the benefits of using a sector of the workforce (joiners, cabinet makers, furniture factories etc) that were not being fully utilised so were willing to allow de Havilland to work on what became the Mosquito.
If the Mosquito hadn't been given the go ahead, deHavilland might have spent the war just building Tiger Moths and Dragon Rapides/Dominies
The Mosquito came about because de Havilland felt they were being under utilised in the war effort due to the fact that they mostly did not manufacture metal aircraft (the DH95 Flamingo being a bit of outlyer) and therefore were not considered completely capable of building a modern and capable front line aircraft. After some hesitation, the Air Ministry eventually saw the benefits of using a sector of the workforce (joiners, cabinet makers, furniture factories etc) that were not being fully utilised so were willing to allow de Havilland to work on what became the Mosquito.
If the Mosquito hadn't been given the go ahead, deHavilland might have spent the war just building Tiger Moths and Dragon Rapides/Dominies
It looks like there was a second crash at an air show yesterday, thjis time it was a Druine Turbulent at the Stowe Maries event.
PIlot in hospital with serious injuries.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/plane-crashe...
PIlot in hospital with serious injuries.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/plane-crashe...
After the rebuild which returned it to the air back in the late 80's(?) it was operated from the old de Havilland factory site at Hatfield as Old Warden wasn't considered suitable to operate it from. When BAe announced it was closing Hatfield in 93 or 94(?) it was going to be grounded, but they extended the runway at Old Warden to enable the Comet to be operated from home base and continue to fly, but even with the extended runway at OW its still marginal to operate it from there....especially as OW is quite bumpy, and its probably hard as concrete at the moment with no rain for over 2 months.
The Comet is to be rebuilt to airworthy condition
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D75MNgXLh/?mibex...
Thats awesome news for the jewell in the collections crown
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D75MNgXLh/?mibex...
Thats awesome news for the jewell in the collections crown
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