Mosquito plans found

[MartG]

More than 20,000 wartime Mosquito engineering drawings and diagrams have been found in the corner of a wartime factory just days before bulldozers were due to flatten it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/06/discove...

[Simpo Two]

I think it was much the same with the Stirling a while back.

[johnnyreggae]

Shouldn't these drawings be a proper public and/or museum resource (eg de Havilland Aircraft Museum or IWM) rather than end up with some folk who may or may not rebuild a plane

Edited by johnnyreggae on Tuesday 8th August 06:23

[MartG]

johnnyreggae said:

Shouldn't these drawings be a proper public and/or museum resource (eg de Havilland Aircraft Museum or IWM) rather than end up with some folk who may or may not rebuild a plane

Edited by johnnyreggae on Tuesday 8th August 06:23

Yup - should be scanned and made available online

[Eric Mc]

Technically they will belong to either BAE Systems or Airbus - so it would really be up to them as to what happens to them.

I wonder what drawings the restoration team in New Zealand have been operating from?

[dr_gn]

I'd have thought they're not too relevant for new builds these days - two or three complete new Mosquitos have been built recently, so whatever was needed for the major components is available anyway.

I guess if no substantially complete aircraft is available as a donor, then drawings of some smaller parts might be useful.

[MartG]

dr_gn said:

I'd have thought they're not too relevant for new builds these days - two or three complete new Mosquitos have been built recently, so whatever was needed for the major components is available anyway.

I guess if no substantially complete aircraft is available as a donor, then drawings of some smaller parts might be useful.

The availability of the original drawings and specifications may make certification easier

Eric Mc said:

I wonder what drawings the restoration team in New Zealand have been operating from?

[Simpo Two]

I was going to say 'Keil-Kraft' but that is better

[justinio]

Probably my favourite out of the WWII planes.

[Eric Mc]

I know Parker-Knoll were heavilly involved in Mosquito production. Maybe they have some plans stashed away too.

[Yertis]

Eric Mc said:

I know Parker-Knoll were heavilly involved in Mosquito production. Maybe they have some plans stashed away too.

So they've got the seats sorted.

[Vitorio]

Eric Mc said:

Technically they will belong to either BAE Systems or Airbus - so it would really be up to them as to what happens to them.

I wonder what drawings the restoration team in New Zealand have been operating from?

It'd be cool if airbus were to just put these in the public domain, allow anyone to go ahead and build one

I do wonder if they'd be able to disclaim any responsibility for the designs though, if there is any risk of some poor sap killing themselves with a home built mosquito and the lawsuit leads back to the design..

[aeropilot]

MartG said:

More than 20,000 wartime Mosquito engineering drawings and diagrams have been found in the corner of a wartime factory just days before bulldozers were due to flatten it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/06/discove...

These are the set of drgs held/used by BAe for the operation of RR299, hence why they were at Broughton and are in effect a duplicate of the complete master set of drgs held by de Havilland Aviation at Duxford.

[aeropilot]

Eric Mc said:

I wonder what drawings the restoration team in New Zealand have been operating from?

A mix of the set sent to Australia for wartime production (which is for the fighter types) and the set sent to Canada for wartime production (which covers the bomber types and is located at the Smithsonian), which probably covers most of what there was, but the complete master set that covers everything is at Duxford.

[Simpo Two]

aeropilot said:

These are the set of drgs held/used by BAe for the operation of RR299, hence why they were at Broughton and are in effect a duplicate of the complete master set of drgs held by de Havilland Aviation at Duxford.

So there was known master set anyway, and also a known second set.

Love the media

[aeropilot]

Simpo Two said:

aeropilot said:

These are the set of drgs held/used by BAe for the operation of RR299, hence why they were at Broughton and are in effect a duplicate of the complete master set of drgs held by de Havilland Aviation at Duxford.

So there was known master set anyway, and also a known second set.

Love the media

Can't blame TPM for trying to get publicity by whatever means, for the project which lets face it is a massive undertaking to build one from scratch, so the fact they now have BAe's set from RR299 which will be for a solid nose being a T.3, and they want to build their NF up as a solid nose rather than the correct 'thimble' nose NF version, means they do stand a chance of making all the small components needed to manufacture.
The fact they will still have CAA certifications issues for the new build woodwork is a different matter entirely!
As is the small matter of raising £5m plus to do it!

[lufbramatt]

And another set at the Smithsonian in the states, on microfilm.

[aeropilot]

lufbramatt said:

And another set at the Smithsonian in the states, on microfilm.

Not a complete all versions set though.....it's the set sent over to (or a copy of the set) Canada for Canadian production, and is therefore a set for the glazed nosed bombers only, as DH Canada only were to produce the glazed nose versions.

[SantaBarbara]

Eric Mc said:

Technically they will belong to either BAE Systems or Airbus - so it would really be up to them as to what happens to them.

I wonder what drawings the restoration team in New Zealand have been operating from?

Or they may belong to the MoD

You would have to look at the original contract

Was it P V Priv ate Venture?

[Snoggledog]

Eric Mc said:

I know Parker-Knoll were heavily involved in Mosquito production. Maybe they have some plans stashed away too.

The Parker Knoll, Gomme and Ercol factories which made large parts of the plane were razed to the ground in the mid to late 90's to make way for housing. IIRC Parker Knoll now manufactures in Asia and the Ercol factory has, I think, moved out of High Wycombe completely. I think that Gomme wound up completely.

Yertis said:

So they've got the seats sorted.

True, High Wycombe was famous for its furniture but the beech forests (now mostly gone) were used extensively for the Mosquito. The irony is that RAF High Wycombe has a Spitfire slowly crumbling outside its main gate. I always thought that a Mosquito would be more appropriate