De Havilland Mosquito

[Eric Mc]

Not related to the actor Eric Chitty?

[DickyC]

Not that I'm aware. My mother's lot were the Walton on Thames Chittys. Several generations ago there was a building firm run by my great grandfather Chitty that fizzled out after the First War and my grandfather's cousin, Fred, sentenced to be shot by firing squad on the Somme for falling asleep on guard duty but saved by his parents sending proof that he was fifteen, became an undertaker. Another cousin, Algernon, worked for a bank and was remarkably good at making money unfortunately for himself rather than the bank. My grandfather, Frank Chitty, and his brother, Bob, worked at Shepperton as carpenters. My uncle, Bill, worked there firstly as an electrician but worked his way up to Gaffer directly for the studio and then as manager of Lee Brothers workshop for their lighting business. He met my aunt on Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (which featured John Cobb's record breaking Napier Railton in heavy disguise). A great uncle by marriage, Bill Collins, also worked there as a stage hand. A family business for sure.

I could reminisce all afternoon, but I'll be in trouble if I do. There's plenty more.

[p1esk]

In the recently transmitted TV programme about the mosquito, there were several shots that appeared to show only five exhaust stubs on the side of the engine cover, but I thought the mosquito had two Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engines, so what's that all about? Did anybody else see the programme and notice that?

[Eric Mc]

Exhausts were sometimes twined (Siamesed).

Spitfires up to the Mark VI had three exhausts stubs for the six cylinders.

[aeropilot]

p1esk said:

In the recently transmitted TV programme about the mosquito, there were several shots that appeared to show only five exhaust stubs on the side of the engine cover, but I thought the mosquito had two Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engines, so what's that all about?

On the single stage Merlin powered earlier Mossie's such as this FB.26 the shorter nacelles meant the two rear exhaust stubs were siamised due to lack of room.
If you look at a later Mossie with the longer two-stage blower Merlins, which had longer nacelles, you'll see that they have the normal 6 stubs on each side.

[NDT]

Eric Mc said:

Would they have such dissimilar engines on a Mosquito?

Could be something as simple as speccing a different oil pressure. May not make a big difference to the fundamentals of the engine.

[henrycrun]

Hanger rollout at Salisbury Hall, Herts. for the prototype anniversary (Nov 27-29th)

http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/news/75th-anniv...

[thegreenhell]

My favourite plane of all time.

There's currently a documentary available on iplayer about Operation Jericho with some good Mosquito content.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016n2zz/oper...

[SlimRick]

I had completely forgotten about this thread! If you're still reading this thread, I'd love to send Bill a copy of that picture.

jmpjack said:

Hi Slimrick

I know it is sometime since you posted this topic about the De Havilland Mosquito ML 970 but I can confirm that my father Flight Lieutenant ( at the time) Robert Phillips did fly this aircraft at Gravely with 571 Squadron in 1944. I was very interested to see you had found a video of it, is the video on a public site anywhere? If so I would love to view it. In fact Dad only appeared to fly it on the one occasion, his 57th operation to Mannheim - Ludwigshaven on the night of the 1st-2nd May 1944 when his crew member was Flying Officer Mapes. They were carrying one 4000lb cookie. From the description he says "Visual bombing by light of flares on IG Forbenindustrie in Ludwigshaven. Believed very successful. Flares and T.Is ( Target indicators) went down on time, nipped in and bombed. Bombing concentrated, 3 fires started. Not much opposition - many search lights but haze seemed to fox them". Time taken 3.20mins

I can only assume he flew this aircraft on this occasion as the one they had been flying ML968 was "indisposed" at the time!

I dont know if it is of interest to you or your friend but I have a picture of the members of 571 Squadron in June 1944 seated in front of two Mosquitos. I would upload it but I think the file size might be a bit large for a website.

Cheers
Jackie

[RicksAlfas]

Thanks for those reports. I can't believe how informal they are!
Very enjoyable.

[aeropilot]

"Cannot write anymore as there is a party on in the mess"

[Hugo a Gogo]

that took place right above my house, if you drew a straight line from west of Cologne to Duisburg

[MiseryStreak]

Just noticed on Wikipedia, first flight was 80 years ago today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-h...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquit...

[heisthegaffer]

MiseryStreak said:

Just noticed on Wikipedia, first flight was 80 years ago today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-h...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquit...

I understand the museum is really struggling at the moment for funding unfortunately. Brilliant place.

[Eric Mc]

Managed to get there a month or so ago. It has certainly improved since my previous visit in 1988.

[Eric Mc]

I had a coffee

[LordLoveLength]

Heads up - a prog telling the story of the Mosquito is on More4 @ 10 tomorrow night.
Think I saw it before and was a good watch.

[C n C]

LordLoveLength said:

Heads up - a prog telling the story of the Mosquito is on More4 @ 10 tomorrow night.
Think I saw it before and was a good watch.

Thanks for the heads-up. Really enjoyed that.

Now on catch-up if you missed it.

[Yertis]

I watched it last night. Much of the footage of 'Mosquitos' is actually Bostons. As it happens I like Bostons too but you'd think that in a programme about 'The Plane that saved Britain', or whatever it was called, they'd at least get the aircraft shown correct.

[aeropilot]

Yertis said:

I watched it last night. Much of the footage of 'Mosquitos' is actually Bostons. As it happens I like Bostons too but you'd think that in a programme about 'The Plane that saved Britain', or whatever it was called, they'd at least get the aircraft shown correct.

Just one of many 'errors' in the programme, but 100% accuracy to satisfy nerds isn't what these programmes are about.

And Britain was 'saved' pretty much just before the prototype first flew, by the Hurricane.

But, any TV programme about the wonderful Mossie is OK by me, no matter how crap it is.