Merlins/Mosquitos - Amazing CGI

[RegMolehusband]

This is so good it's bound to have been posted before but I've searched and can't find it. I'm sure many won't have seen it though.

Turn up the volume

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZo1KBPKa7c

[Eric Mc]

I've seen this a few times. The CGI is great but the engine noises aren't Merlins.

[RegMolehusband]

Spoilsport Eric - still, they sound and look good.

Edited by RegMolehusband on Monday 29th June 15:56

[Eric Mc]

I've often wondered what he sampled.

The CGI is pretty brilliant. There are some other examples of his work around. He should have been snapped up by the TV industry by now.

[Athlon]

IMHO Mosquito's are just the greatest aircraft of the war, fantastic!

[Eric Mc]

Except when they came unglued in certain climates.

They did have their weaknesses - but they were fantastic aeroplanes.

[ettore]

Athlon said:

IMHO Mosquito's are just the greatest aircraft of the war, fantastic!

IMHO they're just the greatest aircraft of all time. I love them.

Why aren't any flying?

[Eric Mc]

Because they are old - and because wooden structures are difficult to keep in airworthy state. The last flyable example crashed (fatally) in 1996.

However, therre is at least one rebuild to flying condition in progress.

[Athlon]

I know all about the Burma Mossies! they cured that with epoxy bonding did they not?

The last airworthy one crashed about 3 miles from my house from memory the positve G settings on the carbs were wrong/off and it was fuel starved

Is it Aus or NZ that have a couple underway, one is close to flying I doubt we will ever witness one again though, they did structural test on one of the Mossie Museum aircraft and it was deemed to far gone.

[dr_gn]

Athlon said:

I know all about the Burma Mossies! they cured that with epoxy bonding did they not?

The last airworthy one crashed about 3 miles from my house from memory the positve G settings on the carbs were wrong/off and it was fuel starved

Is it Aus or NZ that have a couple underway, one is close to flying I doubt we will ever witness one again though, they did structural test on one of the Mossie Museum aircraft and it was deemed to far gone.

Here it is (and with the correct engine noise):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag5ut3tP3ZM

Very sad to see.

[j_s14a]

It was very sad.

The engines in the first vid sound more like radials.

[Stickers]

Eric Mc said:

Because they are old - and because wooden structures are difficult to keep in airworthy state. The last flyable example crashed (fatally) in 1996.

However, therre is at least one rebuild to flying condition in progress.

There was a Mosquito that flew the circuits out of Broughton Nr Chester (Airbus factory) - we used to sit on outside during lunch breaks watching the pilot go through his routine, the sound of those merlins was awesome in a dive, often parting the grass alongside the airfield I might add!

Sadly, it rolled & went in killing the pilot @ a display sometime during the mid 90's, may have been the Italian crash?

[Eric Mc]

That was the only flyable Mosquite anywhere in the world at the time. It was owned by what was then referred to as British Aerospace. It crashed at an air display at Barton and is the one featured in the link above.

[Stickers]

Eric Mc said:

That was the only flyable Mosquite anywhere in the world at the time. It was owned by what was then referred to as British Aerospace. It crashed at an air display at Barton and is the one featured in the link above.

Quite right, it was Britsh Aerospace, I used it's current name to avoid complication - although it was originally named de havilland back in the DH98's day!

[Eric Mc]

It went through a number of permutations -
De Havilland
Hawker Siddeley
British Aetrospace
BAe Systems
Airbus

[Mr_B]

Given that large parts of it are wood, doesn't this make the Mosquito possibly the easiest WW2 aircraft to replicate ? Tooling-up to produce the all aluminium frame of something like a Spitfire would cost a fortune,but wood working is cheap and easy,and as Hermann Göring said "The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that?".

[dr_gn]

Mr_B said:

Given that large parts of it are wood, doesn't this make the Mosquito possibly the easiest WW2 aircraft to replicate ? Tooling-up to produce the all aluminium frame of something like a Spitfire would cost a fortune,but wood working is cheap and easy,and as Hermann Göring said "The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that?".

I'd say not necessarily. Just because it's wood doesn't make it easy. One of my favoutite books is a moth eaten copy of a 1930s/40s title : "Aeronautical Engineering : A practical Guide for Everyone Connected with the Aircraft Industry" edited by R. A. Beaumont. It covers everything from engine design to 'The construction and repair of flying boats'! There are several chapters on wooden aircraft construction, and the jigs required, for example, for a wooden spar are steel, and every bit as complex as for a metal spar.

I got the book from a second hand shop in the Lake District. It has the name and number of an RAF engineer inside the cover, so maybe it was required reading? Amazon apparently have a copy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aeronautical-Engineering-R...

Well worth having if you like old aircraft and are even vaguely interested in how they were built.

Cheers,

[Eric Mc]

There are wooden aircraft and there are wooden aircraft. Knocking together a wooden framed fuselage such as the type used on a WW1 BE2c or Sopwith Camel might be something the average joiner might be able to do without any specialist training.
However, the Mosquito was a wooden stressed monocoque which was built up in laminated alternating layers of balsa, ply and other woods. It was held together by specially formulated glues.
In 1939/40, this was pretty cutting edge stuff and De Havilland didn't always get it right, particularly regarding the glues and various bonding methods used. Mosquitos did have a tendancy to come unglued (literally) in hot, humid climates.

The German attempt to emulate the Mosquito - the Focke Wulf Ta154 - was a bit of a flop.