Curtiss P-40´s

Specifications:

Crew: 2 Max Speed: 370mph*
Service Ceiling: 34,000 feet
Range: 1,600 miles
Engines: 2 x Rolls Royce Merlin engines
Length: 41 ft 2 inches*
Wingspan: 54 ft 2 inches
Height: 17 ft 5 inches
Weight: 20,000lbs loaded
* Later Mosquitos broke 400mph. Also, the length varied slightly depending on the build – e.g. the early MkII Nightfighter had a set of cannons and arrowhead radar extending in front of it. The crew almost always consisted of Pilot and Navigator.

The de Havilland Mosquito was the fastest and most versatile light bomber of the Second World War, relying on speed for defence. With no defensive armament, a light wooden airframe and power supplied by two Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the Mosquito had a top speed of over 400 mph (643 kmh) and was until 1944 the world’s fastest combat aircraft.

The ‘Wooden Wonder’, as the Mosquito was nicknamed, was first used operationally in May 1942 and proved equally effective as a bomber, night fighter, ground attack and photographic reconnaissance aircraft.

Over seven thousand Mosquitos were built in Britain, Australia and Canada. After the war they continued in use as fighters until 1952 and others, including this example , were converted to tow targets for anti aircraft gunnery practice.

The first Mosquito sortie was made on September 20, 1941, when a single aircraft made a reconnaissance flight over France. At home, the Mosquito night fighter, carrying A.I Mk IV airborne radar, began to take over from the Bristol Blenheim. By late 1942, the Mosquito was becoming operational in ever increasing numbers, and its unique qualities of very high speed and long range were clearly ideal for a particular mission then being planned.

Construction
The genius of the aircraft’s construction lay in the innovative and somewhat unorthodox use of seemingly commonplace materials and techniques. The bulk of the Mosquito was made of plywood. Stronger and lighter than most grades of plywood, this special plywood was produced by a combination of 3/8″ sheets of Ecuadorean balsawood sandwiched between sheets of Canadian birch plywood. Like a deck of cards, sheets of wood alternated with sheets of a special casein-based (Later formaldehyde) wood glue.
Forming the fuselage was done in concrete moulds. Left and right sides of the fuselage were fitted with bulkheads and structural members separately while the glue cured. Reinforcing was done with hundreds of small brass wood screws. This arrangement greatly simplified the installation of hydraulic lines and other fittings, as the two halves of the fuselage were open for easy access by workers. The two halves of the fuselage were then glued and bolted together, and covered with doped Madapolam fabric.
The wings were also made of wood. To increase strength, the wings were made as one single assembly, onto which the fuselage, once both halves had been mated, was lowered and attached.
Metal was used sparingly in the construction of structural elements. It was mostly used in engine mounts and fairings, control surfaces, and of course, brass screws.
The glue used was initially casein-based. It was changed to a formaldehyde-based preparation when the Mosquito was introduced to fighting in semi-tropical and tropical climates, after some unexplained crashes led to the suspicion that the glue was unable to withstand the climate. De Havilland also developed a technique to accelerate the glue drying by heating it using radio waves.
The specialized wood veneer used in the construction of the Mosquito was made by Roddis Manufacturing in Marshfield, Wisconsin, United States. Hamilton Roddis had teams of dexterous young women ironing the (Unusually thin) strong wood veneer product before shipping to the UK.
The Mosquito was a taildragger (that is, the third wheel of the undercarriage was under the tail, not the nose) giving it a very noticeable nose-up stance on the runway. During takeoff the tail would lift first (as you can see in the videos), bringing the plane level before it left the ground.
It was powered by two Merlin engines, the same type that powered the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster. However it had superb performance even on one, performing a climbing roll with one engine in demonstration.
Although designed as a bomber, when built it was faster than the fighters, so a fighter variant was created. Legendary for its versitility, it went on to serve in a wide number of roles, including pathfinder, bomber, night-bomber and fighter among others.
History
De Havilland conceived the idea of a wooden aircraft to take advantage of the underused resources and skills of the furniture industry at a time of great pressure on the conventional aircraft industry, and shortages of steel and aluminium. The Air Ministry was not interested; de Havilland designed the Mosquito on a speculative basis, only interesting the Ministry when they saw the performance of the prototype.
The original Mosquito design dated from 1938 but it was not until March 1940 that there was sufficient interest in the aircraft for construction to commence. Three prototypes were built, each with a different configuration. The first to fly was the bomber prototype W4050 on November 25, 1940 followed by the night fighter model on May 15, 1941 and the photo-reconnaissance model on June 10, 1941.
The outstanding feature of the Mosquito was its speed, faster than any other aircraft of the time-so much so that defensive armament was not fitted as the Mosquito could outrun any pursuer.
The photo-reconnaissance model became the basis for the PR Mk I Mosquito while the bomber model became the B Mk IV, of which 273 were built. The first operational sortie by a Mosquito was made by a PR Mk I on September 20, 1941.
The Mk IV entered service in May 1942 with No.105 Squadron. The B Mk IV could accommodate 4 × 500 lb. (227 kg) bombs in the bomb bay, and either two drop tanks or two additional 500 lb. bombs on wing hardpoints. The Mk IX was a high-altitude bomber variant but the most numerous bomber version was the Mk XVI of which about 1,200 were built.
The Mosquito bombers could carry a 4,000 lb. (1 816 kg) “blockbuster” bomb in their internal bomb bay. This required a bulged bomb bay which could alternatively accommodate up to 6 × 500 lb. bombs on an Avro carrier. Mosquitos were widely used by the RAF Path Finder Force which marked targets for night-time strategic bombing. Despite an initially high loss rate the Mosquito ended the war with the lowest loss rate of any aircraft in RAF Bomber Command service. The RAF found that when finally applied to bombing, it had proved 4.5 times cheaper than the Lancaster in terms of useful damage done, and they have never specified a defensive gun on a bomber since. Special Luftwaffe units formed to fight the Mosquito attacks were rather unsuccessful, and the Luftwaffe considered the Mosquito a superior implementation of their own “Schnellbomber” concept.
The first production night fighter Mosquitos were designated the NF Mk II and 466 were built with the first entering service with No.157 Squadron in January 1942, replacing the Douglas A-20 Havoc. They were armed with four 20 mm Hispano cannons mounted in the lower front fuselage and four .303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the nose as well as an AI Mk IV radar. The success of these night fighters, and the need to conceal the existence of radar, resulted in a degree of notoriety for pilot John “Cat’s Eyes” Cunningham; he and other pilots were said untruly to have phenomenally acute night vision due to eating carrots (This was due to a British disinformation campaign arising from the aforesaid need to hide the development of radar from the Germans).
Ninety-seven NF Mk IIs were upgraded with a centrimetric AI Mk VIII radar and these were designated the NF Mk XII. The NF Mk XIII, of which 270 were built, was the production equivalent of the Mk XII conversions. They also dispensed with the machine guns in the nose. The other night fighter variants were the Mk XV, Mk XVII (converted Mk IIs), Mk XIX and Mk 30. The last three marks mounted the US-built AI Mk X radar. After the war, two more night fighter versions were developed, the NF Mk 36, powered by the Merlin 113/114 engine, and the NF Mk 38 using the British-built AI Mk IX radar. To warn German night fighters that they were being tracked by these radars, the Germans introduced Naxos ZR radar detectors.
Mosquito night intruders of No.100 Group RAF, Bomber Command, were also fitted with a device called “Serrate” to allow them to track down German night fighters from their Lichtenstein B/C and SN2 radar emissions, as well as a device named “Perfectos” that tracked German IFF.
In action
It proved effective as a bomber, and was fast enough that one aircraft could perform two sorties over Germany in one night.
In a matt-black finish it swiftly replaced the Bristol Blenheim as a night-fighter for home defense and in the following three years downed over 600 enemy aircraft and a similar number of flying bombs. From 1942 it also served as a dayfighter, and from 1943 onwards as the fighter-bomber which made it famous.
Production of the Mosquito did not end until 1950, and the aircraft saw action with the Israeli airforce in 1956 in the Suez Crisis.
Dubbed the Wooden Wonder or Timber Terror, the Mosquito was one of the most famous aircraft of World War Two.
Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito was adapted to many other roles during the air war, including: low to medium altitude daytime tactical bomber, high-altitude night bomber, pathfinder, day or night fighter, fighter-bomber, intruder, maritime strike aircraft, and fast photo-reconnaissance aircraft. It was also used by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) as a transport.
When the Mosquito entered production in 1941, it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world. Entering widespread service in 1942, the Mosquito supported RAF strategic night fighter defence forces in the United Kingdom from Luftwaffe raids, most notably defeating the German aerial offensive Operation Steinbock in 1944.
Offensively, the Mosquito units also conducted nighttime fighter sweeps in indirect and direct protection of RAF Bomber Command’s heavy bombers to help reduce RAF bomber losses in 1944 and 1945. The Mosquito increased German night fighter losses to such an extent the Germans were said to have awarded two victories for shooting one down. As a bomber, it took part in “special raids”, such as pinpoint attacks on prisoner-of-war camps (to aid escapes), Gestapo or German intelligence and security force bases, as well as tactical strikes in support of the British Army in the Normandy Campaign. Some Mosquitos also saw action in RAF Coastal Command during the Battle of the Atlantic, attacking Kriegsmarine U-Boat and transport ship concentrations, particularly in the Bay of Biscay offensive in 1943 in which significant numbers of U-boats were sunk or damaged.
The Mosquito was also used in the Mediterranean and Italian theatres, as well as being used by the RAF in the CBI Theatre, and by the RAAF based in the Halmaheras and Borneo during the Pacific War.
Flight operation instructions