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And please see if that is a "normal" take off weight to include max fuel or payload which might include a 4000 lb bomb with less fuel.
Max speed bomb bay doors opened - 305 knots. "Va" - 19,000 pounds max...
From the pilot's notes, page 39. Although 305 knots is the max speed you can open the bomb bay doors, I doubt bombs were dropped at that speed.
Its from a FB 6Are those the B.XVI notes, or the FB.VI notes from January 1950? The bomb door speed didn't change from wartime conditions, but FWIW, the dive speed limitations for the FB.VI were higher in wartime.
Anyway, the CG chart for a B.IX (same engines as the XVI) configured for the 4,000 lb. load and two 50-gal wing tanks gives an all-up weight of 24,570. As noted, the XVI tare was 446 lb higher, for a total of 25,016. The 8 Group Mosquitos went off to Berlin in that configuration, so, yes, the test weight is realistic.
Speaking of 8 Group, according to the appendices in Sharp and Bowyer, they recommended a max takeoff weight of 25,200 for the cookie and 597 gallons fuel (indicating 2x50-gal tanks). The Group also gave max speed at 28,500 as 408 mph before the target, 419 mph after leaving it.
Different appendix in same source gives economical cruise speed for the XVI as 320 mph at 25,000 feet, 350 mph at 30,000 feet. So, if it wanted to, the XVI was capable of dropping a cookie from an economical cruise, without having to reduce speed.
All this in an attempt to demonstrate that, in contrast to what's been posted, when a Mosquito was carrying a 4,000 lb bomb, it was capable of getting close to 400 mph, and indeed it cruised in that condition in excess of 300.
Again without wishing to incur the wrath of the Ban Stick, if what was actually meant is that Mosquitos didn't bomb at 400 mph, well, with respect, those are different goalposts from post 91, and not what I originally responded to.
I can try to scan in the A.&A.E.E. report if you/others still wish to see it.
Would that 305kt limitation be indicated airspeed or true airspeed?
You made my point
Flyboy,
I think we're confusing 2 separate performance attributes - the speed at which bombs can be dropped and the maximum speed at which an aircraft can fly with a full bomb load. I think mhuxt has done a reasonable job of justifying his statements re the Mosquito's performance in the latter case.
The requirement to fly straight and level from the IP to the target makes any bomber vulnerable (even today!). The Mosquito's speed would be used either before or after the target run if enemy fighters were encountered. If the Mosquito was engaged during the target run, the pilot would typically abort the attack and seek to defend against the enemy fighter, although I suspect point defence of a target would be left to AAA (ie defending fighters would be warned to keep away for fear of "friendly fire"). Hence the bomb door limiting speed is a different argument from the one mhuxt was supporting with his max speed evidence.
Regards,
Mark
yepz.. as i also postedBut it can zoom away.. but it would be harder to redo the attack if not successful.. you are almost forced to break off.. in bad weather.. you are.. because you will almost lose visual or completely because you have to take enough distance from adversary to make a slow turn.. (because when you tight turn.. you may loose hight advantage and sertain loose airspeed) the two most important things to be a good dogfight pilot.. hight advantage and airspeed. = speed = life..
So for me its not a fighter aircraft.. it can do a devastating blow by is armament but not the maneuver capacity of a normal fighter aircraft. (in my opinion).
And dont forget.. when you have a fighter as target.. it can easily outturn the mossie.. so for me it still remains recon, low level bomber -> strafingAND a goof aircraft to take down enemy bombers..
Shame it lacks a machine gun mounted to the rear of the aircraft. because the navigator in my opinion deserves a gun!
I have read many times that the Mossie was hard to detect with radar but surely with 2 big lumps of metal hanging off the wings and 2 big props spinning radar would have been able to spot it. Does anyone have any info on the radar cross section of the Mossie and was it any different in the real world to an equivalent size aircraft.
Actually that was true, even with the props turning. The Plywood construction did absorb some of the radar energy. If I'm not mistaken the Mosquito was one of the first aircraft to use an IFF system because of this.
I believe IFF was in use by the RAF long before the Mosquito entered service. IIRC fighters during the Battle of Britain were IFF-equipped to enable the radar sites to distinguish between friendly and hostile formations.
Cocky Pilot
"ALL bombers had escorts for the simple reason that a bomber (whatever it is) needs an escort because you cannot perform a precision bombing run with even one enemy interceptor in the region, a bomb run is a perfect target."
Big word ALL. I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.
Way off line with this one chum. As a gut feeling I would hazard a guess that more raids by bombers went ahead WITHOUT fighter escort than with! And as far as having an escort over the target area, that was a luxury only afforded to a few.
Don't remember many fighter escorts for the RAF night raids over Europe from '39 through to '45.