DH98 Mosquito at Oshkosh

[MIflyer]

Restored in New Zealand, which pretty much required building a new one from scratch. Gorgeous job!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

That is a thing of beauty.

 

[rochie]

would love to see it over here one day !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

I'd give Boris Johnson's right arm to see it, or any Mossie, in UK skies again !

 

[MIflyer]

It went to NZ after the war, then to the US, and then back to NZ to be restored. They practically have a factory going down there.

"Denholm told the audience that a California company bought about six of the New Zealand Mosquitoes for use in survey work in the early 1950s. But the purchase ran afoul of import issues after only one — this one — had been ferried to the U.S. The Mosquito eventually was impounded and parked outdoors at the old Whiteman airport in the greater Los Angeles area. Vandals and the weather took their toll for the next two decades. By 1971, a new owner bought the remains of the Mosquito and stored most of the carcass inside, Denholm said."

"In 2014, negotiations with the owner resulted in the sale of the Mosquito so Avspecs could begin its resurrection. Surprisingly, the original Merlin engines were still with the aircraft, and these were delegated to the Vintage V-12s company for rebuilding in Tehachapi, California. The rest of the airframe, such as it was, made its way to New Zealand in a shipping container. This is the third Mosquito project undertaken by Avspecs since 2005. Denholm told the audience the first one required seven years to complete; the second one was done in five years. And this example rolled out of the shop in four years, the result of increased understanding and those vital fuselage molds made for the first airplane."

 

[Crimea_River]

It seems to be either a quirk of design or maintenance on at least two of these fliers that they can't seem to find a way to maintain enough spring tension in the undercarriage doors to keep them from opening up a crack in mid flight. See pic 2. Bob Jens' Mossie in Vancouver does the same.

 

[wuzak]

It seems to be either a quirk of design or maintenance on at least two of these fliers that they can't seem to find a way to maintain enough spring tension in the undercarriage doors to keep them from opening up a crack in mid flight. See pic 2. Bob Jens' Mossie in Vancouver does the same.

A problem that, IIRC, de Havilland had with the prototype.

 

[pbehn]

It seems to be either a quirk of design or maintenance on at least two of these fliers that they can't seem to find a way to maintain enough spring tension in the undercarriage doors to keep them from opening up a crack in mid flight. See pic 2. Bob Jens' Mossie in Vancouver does the same.

Doors bursting open pulling out of a dive was an issue in the early days, I think a few test pilots were lost before they fixed it

 

[MIflyer]

They use bungee cords to hold the doors closed.

 

[Crimea_River]

They use bungee cords to hold the doors closed.

Not really bungees. The gear doors are closed via cables attached to springs that are under tension as the doors are held open by the extended landing gear. As the gear retracts, the tensioned springs allow the doors to close as the fenders that attach to the undercarriage struts pass by the doors. That's why I referred to spring tension in my post.

 

[Glider]

Simply stunning views

 

[MIflyer]

Talking about making an airplane "better" with modern technology, I'll bet this one is an example. The Casein milk-based glues used in Mossies and many other wooden aircraft really did not like tropical conditions, and I suspect did not last that long even not in the tropics. I'd guess that since AC43-13 was not involved they used modern glues, such as epoxies, which are vastly superior in every way.

I recall reading that an engineer went from England to the CBI and pronounced the Mossies there unflightworthy due to the local bugs munching on the structure. He was told that ETO standards were unreasonable for that theater. He then went out and sawed the wings off the aircraft to make sure they were not flown.

And no doubt old lessons learned with the aircraft were incorporated as well, so that it is not only a new build but represents the best of the best practices.

 

[Gnomey]

Very cool!

 

[Big Jake]

Israel Air Force was the last to fly the Mosquito operationally and only took them out of service in 1957 after a spate of airplanes disintegrating in mid-air, killing the crew. After removal from service, the Israeli Mosquitos were lined up for storage in Kfar Sirkin airbase. Every once in a while, something like an explosion could be heard when the fuselage behind the wing snapped and broke, the tail section falling to the ground and the nose and engines pointing up to the sky. Me and some friends used to sneak in through the fence and remove the balsa plates from the broken fuselage sections, balsa that we used to build and fly model airplanes. One day we returned and found that all the airplanes were gone and so our free source of balsa.

 

[Shortfinals]

For information, gentlemen.........The People's Mosquito took out a full-page ad. in the RIAT programme (following the arrival of 6 tonnes of wing and tail jigs from New Zealand)

 

[Shortfinals]

Israel Air Force was the last to fly the Mosquito operationally and only took them out of service in 1957 after a spate of airplanes disintegrating in mid-air, killing the crew. After removal from service, the Israeli Mosquitos were lined up for storage in Kfar Sirkin airbase. Every once in a while, something like an explosion could be heard when the fuselage behind the wing snapped and broke, the tail section falling to the ground and the nose and engines pointing up to the sky. Me and some friends used to sneak in through the fence and remove the balsa plates from the broken fuselage sections, balsa that we used to build and fly model airplanes. One day we returned and found that all the airplanes were gone and so our free source of balsa.

Thank you for this! As far as I am aware, these are the only remains of a 'Yatush' extant in Israel


View attachment 547222View attachment 547222

 

[Shortfinals]

 

[Verbails]

It seems to be either a quirk of design or maintenance on at least two of these fliers that they can't seem to find a way to maintain enough spring tension in the undercarriage doors to keep them from opening up a crack in mid flight. See pic 2. Bob Jens' Mossie in Vancouver does the same.

I know it may seem the doors are open but they are actually closed there is quite a large rubber "p" seal between them! The doors are closed primarily by the steel cable at the front of the door which is connected to a large bungee that returns around a pulley! The springs at the rear are secondary! Originally the doors were only closed by these springs and bungees but as pointed out the could open under high G or some wind gusts so a gust lock was installed this was basically a hook that engaged with the gear at the last inch of movement! Sometimes the latch can engage on the wrong side of the bar on the gear and leave the door ajar! I know this because I have rigged TV959 and PZ474 you are right to think they are a nightmare to set but beautifully simple
Regards Chris

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the clarification and I stand corrected on the gear door retraction system. There was indeed a cable/pulley system in addition to the spring at the rear. Though you correctly mention the presence of the P-seals, I still maintain that the doors are open a crack in the head-on picture above. The port and starboard sides appear to be slightly different.

According to drawings in my possession, the P seal you mention is only 5/8" in diameter so even if they were only just touching and not compressed, that would make an apparent "gap" of just 1.25".

The opening issue was brought up with a contact we have at Victoria Air Maintenance after I photographed Bob Jens' VR796 at Abbotsford in 2015. My poor picture is shown below.

Here's a wartime pic.

The contact admitted that he was aware of the issue and that they had been trying to fix it.