A diffrerent kind of woodworking!

[Student]

A fortnight ago, there was a repeat of a Channel 4 documentary called “The plane that saved Britain” aka “the wooden wonder” or, in RAF parlance, the De Havilland Mosquito. The programme showed a brief glimpse of how the plane was manufactured and mentioned that one had been restored for an American museum. What it didn’t say was that the majority of the restoration work was done in New Zealand. For those interested, more details of the restoration can be found here

http://www.mosquitorestoration.com/index.shtml

The Gallery, in particular, shows the complexity of the woodwork involved. If you wish to see a film clip of one of the early flights, it can be seen here (you can skip the advert)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEyDlgJYIF8

On a similar topic, whilst in New Zealand visiting our daughter and her family earlier this year, my wife and I visited the south of South Island. On the recommendation of the hostess of our last B&B we visited the Croydon Aircraft Museum, no relation to the Croydon Airport of my youth as it happened. The site consists of three parts. The first is the largest collection of De Havilland Aircraft in the Southern Hemisphere, the second is the joyrides they do in a Tiger Moth and the third, the woodworking part, is a workshop where they renovate old aircraft. As far as the workshop was concerned, I was told that I was at liberty to wander round, which I did. The staff were having lunch so I was unable to chat to them about their work but I was able to see all the machinery, large and small, that they use to make components for historic aircraft. Details of the museum etc can be found here and I thoroughly recommend a visit if you are ever fortunate to visit NZ yourself.

http://www.croydonaircraft.com/CAC.html
http://www.croydonaircraft.com/CAS.html

P.S. If, like me, you like videos of WWII aircraft, check out on YouTube the Hamilton Air Show 2013 Merlin Flight – there’s a flypast of a Lancaster, Mosquito, Spitfire and two Hurricanes, more aircraft than our own Battle of Britain Memorial Flight!

 

[joethedrummer]

That"s fascinating,, will be on the north island in Feb: 2014 but time is already tied up, the south is ruled out this time,, but sister in law has threatened another visit,, Rotorua, etc:,,,

 

[lanemaux]

Somewhere in the deep dark past I had the pleasure of being an air cadet in Toronto ,Canada. I was young , starry eyed and enthusiastic. In short , I was a fanatic cadet. Each of us did a lot of study on the aircraft of the second world war. In my squadrons case we homed in on that marvel of creative engineering that was our namesake. I still love my memories of 180 Mosquito Squadron.

 

[KevM]

It's fantastic that there are such talented and dedicated people out there keeping these remarkable machines alive - a great tribute to the original engineers, aircrew and groundcrew.

 

[Student]

As a follow up to my previous post, I noticed in my Sunday newspaper that Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies etc., is arranging for various WW1 replica aircraft to be brought to the UK for the centenary commemoration of the Great War; he apparently chairs a trust that owns some 40 original and reproduction aircraft. Apparently, the first batch of 7 planes will arrive by 1 May to mark the centenary of 7 Squadron RFC/RAF.

The company that builds and maintains the aircraft is, like the Mosquito restoration company, based in New Zealand – see

http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/vintage- ... viator-ltd

It just makes me wonder why we haven’t got similar companies in th UK. Does the IWM at Duxford have similar facilities?

 

[wellywood]

Doesn't the Shuttleworth organisation at Old Warden restore aircraft?
(I almost said 'planes' there but that would have got too many members excited then disappointed )

 

[Kalimna]

As a follow on from Students post, Peter Jackson is also heavily involved in a company called Wingnut Wings. They produce exquisitely detailed, and accurate, 1-32 scale plastic kits of exclusively WW1 era aircraft.
I have a couple of their kits (including a Gotha), but haven't the nerve to tackle them yet.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Student]

Wellywood - thanks for correcting me on this. The Shuttlewood Collection do seem to restore and maintain old aircraft. However, looking at their website, they seem to have acquired most of their replicas, a number of them being made for the film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" some 50 years' ago. Others were made by a flying club which, according to a Google search is just about to pack up its tools

http://www.batleynews.co.uk/news/local/ ... -1-6014213

 

[Student]

Oops - Shuttleworth Collection!

 

[James C]

There is a small museum near London Conley that is currently restoring a Mosquito I believe.

I live in Hatfield now and it is a shame how few people know the history of the place in its contribution to the war effort.

The students from our school worked on a Heritage project last year focusing on the Mosquitos role in conflict. This prompted the DeHavilland archives to release some footage for the school to watch of a mosquito strafing a warship in the North Sea it was very impressive.

 

[wellywood]

James. I think you're referring to Salisbury Hall where the Mosquito design team were based and the prototype was built. Went there many moons ago and it was impressive.
Here's a link
http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/history.html

 

[James C]

Yes, that's the one! I have visited it too, one of my former colleagues was involved in the restoration project.

I think I will have to try and take advantage of the centenary and go and look at some of the events they have planned to commemorate WW1.

 

[AES]

Interesting info, thanks all.

Just to add some further info:

In addition to the Shuttleworth Collection (just outside Biggleswade, Beds), the Duxford Museum (ust outside Cambridge) does indeed have restoration workshops and I understand that by prior arrangement it is possible to vist the shops. But as Duxford tends to have WWII and later aircraft the shops are more metal oriented. Very interesting nevertheless (ifyou're into that sort of thing). As a point of further "useless" information, at the start of WWII, RAF Station Duxford was the site of the first RAF squadron operational with Spitfires, i.e. 19 (F) Sqn. A good friend/colleague of mine lives in Duxford and every time I visit him there are (still) Spitfires to be seen in the circuit there. Today the Duxford Museum is a "country branch" for the Imperial War Museum, HQ is Elephant & Castle, London SE1.

In addition, another "country branch" of IWM is the former RAF base at Cosford, just outside Wolverhampton. I understand that restoration work is done there too, though I have not yet visited.

And finally there's the RAF Museum at Hendon. Again it's on my "must visit" list but I seldom get to the UK for anything other than business these days.

Hope there's some interest in the above for some.

Krgds
AES

 

[James C]

Does Duxford still have the intact wreckage of the Japanese Zero? I remember my dad saying that there were very few Zeros that were actually crashed in the Pacific conflicts that were recovered.

 

[AES]

@JamesC:

Short answer, I don't know, it's some years since I visited the Museum itself. I can ask my Duxford mate if you like?

AES

 

[James C]

I'm hoping to go up in a month or two, so I will have a look then. It's been about two years since I last went so it will be interesting to see how much further some of the projects have gone in the restoration hanger.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I thought that, somewhere down under, there were at least two replica Mosquito airframes being made to be flown. Is that project(s) still going?

I was lucky enough to sit in the pilot's seat of one when I was a child, but never flew in it. I still find it amazing that some of them flew without armament to save weight. I think that included some of the pathfinders, but I'm often wrong. Certainly true of some of the reconnaissance units though.

 

[AES]

EtV, you're not wrong. If you exclude the bombs that all the bonber versions carried (of course) ASFAIK all bomber variants had no armament (guns). Neither did the the PR (Photo Reconaisance) versions. "Only" the fighter, night fighter, and ground attack variants carried guns (in most cases, 4 x 20mm Hispano cannons with their breeches and ammo stores and belt feed mechanisms running below the cockpit floor back into the bomb bay area).

And NO, I'm not old enough to have worked on any, but as a very young and green ATC cadet I did sit in the cockpit of one (a TT - Target Towing variant).

Krgds
AES

 

[wellywood]

BOAC also flew an unarmed Mosquito shuttle service throughout the war between Sweden and the UK. It relied on its speed to keep it out of trouble.
I also believe that some of the later variants could carry a bomb load about equal to the B17E Fortress (4000 lbs). All this with just two crew and two engines.
Altogether a remarkable aircraft.

 

[AES]

@wellywood:

You're right about the BOAC flights. Back in another life I once shared an office with an ex-BOAC Captain, Mike Carrol. He told me he started with BOAC flying the HP 42 Heracles biplane airliner (before the war) and due to his age, was not allowed to join the RAF. But he flew some of those Mosquito flights - they were civilian aircraft, so marked, and as you say, unarmed. Apparently the "passenger accomodation" was a matress laid into the bonb bay, plus a portable oxygen bottle for the (up to 2) pax. Also the bomb door opening control was lock-wired closed!!!

The route was from from somewhere up in Scotland (Leuchars I think) direct to Stockholm where apparently they often saw Lufthansa Junkers and Focke-Wulf airliners doing turn rounds during their Berlin/Stockholm/Berlin run. Apparently the Lufthansa crews often radioed back to their own base to advise that aMossie had just arrived/just departed.

Along with several runs carrying Swedish ball bearings, Mike told me he flew the run which brought the Nuclear Phyisist Nils Bohr to UK for the start of the Manhattan nuclear bomb project.

Particulary in the early/mid war years the Mossie could apparently out-run just about anything the opposition (or our side) had available.

Mike was a great character to talk to but I haven't seen him for over 30 years and I guess he's no longer with us.

AES