Mosquito Question

[HRBarland]

Correct, however, all of that equipment is above the roof of the bomb bay and would not be visible in the photos presented so far. This is the interior of the TT35 at the DH Heritage Centre in Hatfield looking forward. Picture is my own.

View attachment 798600

Well, looking at this picture (thank you for that BTW-I'm a long way from Hatfield these days), I could imagine my troll punching their hands through the roof to hug that spar (under the word 'roof') so they could wedge themselves in there.

 

[Crimea_River]

If your troll spent time at the gym then he could do it, maybe. He would have to neatly punch though about 6mm of birch plywood. The rear wing spar would be approximately 2 feet in front of the word "roof" in my photo.

 

[HRBarland]

I'm having her be supernaturally strong (enough to pull a Mosquito into the hanger,etc), so no issue there.

 

[SaparotRob]

Is a wing spar something one should be punching through?

 

[HRBarland]

Is a wing spar something one should be punching through?

We're going through the roof which extends 2ft aft of the wing spar.

 

[HRBarland]

I have a further question, (if this is the right place to ask it), I was listening to Mosquito Mayhem by Martin W Bowman. At one stage they mentioned that they are turning down the sights so as to be better able to see their target. I'm ok with this concept, but what I was surprised by was the info that the sight was illuminated by ultraviolet light.

Does that sound right?

 

[Wurger]

Yes it was called an UV floodlamp. It had the UV filter rheostat and dimmer switch. The floodlight illuminated the cockpit in low-light conditions and was installed on the port side of the cabin as well as on the pilot panel IIRC. Other floodlamps in the cockpit had a rotatable UV-filter. If memory serves.

 

[MIflyer]

Well, the Lockheed Hudson, was, after all, an airliner. They were available early in the war and in fact were used to pick up and drop off agents in France. They had two .303 machine guns mounted forward of the cockpit. I recall reading of one such mission in which they received reports that Luftwaffe nightfighters were around. So the pilots decided to see if the machine guns actually worked. That test had the effect of scaring the bejesus out of the passengers.

Hudsons were also used for the "Scrutanator" missions to Switzerland and Sweden, before being replaced by BOAC Mossies when it was found they needed a bit more poke.

 

[Crimea_River]

The poster is asking about sights not lights unless that's a typo. The UV floodlights were indeed present as Woytek describes but they had nothing to do with the gun sight which had its own dimmable reticle. I think the gun sight light was a normal light bulb and not UV.

 

[Wurger]

I agree with Andy just a typo. The UV lamps illuminated the compass, the gunsight and other required indicators and devices during a flight. So it was a lighting source in the general meaning but not the inner one of any particular device in the cockpit.

 

[HRBarland]

It may have been a misinterpretation on my behalf. They had just been talking about gunsights and then he spoke about turning down the UV. I may have just confused the two as I was listening to the audiobook whilst driving.