Hi John,
While I admire your determination to proceed with this, and obvious in-depth research you are making, I have to say that you absolutely do need a mould to form the fuselage over. I have used this process with the Hornet, and there is no other way to hold the inner-outer skins together accurately. The shape of these airframes is not just a cosmetic shape. They are there to create a load path in bending, shear, and torsion. If you go away from the original manufacturing technique, you will start with a new set of stress calculations and the validation required.

Glyn spent a decade or more constructing his tooling, so my best advice would be to form a group to fund another aircraft to be made on his production line.

Best of luck,

Or alternatively, pay Glynn to build a set of moulds for the project. This wouldn’t be re-creating the technology that Glynn revived. And it would give a UK team a chance to recreate the aircraft developed originally in the UK using the same techniques. The plywood techniques developed in the UK should be as much of the revival as the plane itself. As you’ve noted, Glynn’s done all the hard work, but the fun and pride may be in the making of the thing – and then flying it. But I’d have to agree with notions expressed here about making it by an all volunteer group. Planes of Fame, which uses a great deal of volunteer labor, is rebuilding using technology that isn’t that much different from techniques used today. And rebuilding with metal can be implemented piece by piece. This seems to generally work well with a knowledgeable volunteer work force.

In contrast, the Mosquito’s fuselage is a two piece, monolithic construction requiring a great upfront investment in preparation, technology and infrastructure to get the halves made. Anything less is not a Mosquito. The moulds are difficult to make, and the techniques are tricky to lay the wood. Give the moulds to someone that can handle the reponsiblity in the UK, then hand the halves over to the volunteers. Then the CAA will be confident that the structure was made to spec by professionals and you’ll get a flyer for the UK. The whole fuselage establishment could be a non-profit enterprise for the revitalization of a long lost building technique. You can do that for building castles in Europe, why not Mosquitos? A short run assembly line could be made.
Maybe its a slow project after the halves are made and the volunteers start work on it – well, we’ve seen those before, and it’s not the end of the world.

Tony Agar’s Mosquito. Epic and simply outstanding!

Don’t think there is a separate link though.

A link to pics of Agar’s HJ711 on Mossie.org, however these aren’t from the beginning.
http://www.mossie.org/HJ711.htm

But you have to include Yagen’s KA114, an epic photo history from the beginning up to Nov 2010…
http://www.warbirdrestoration.co.nz/current.html#ka114

…then from Jan. 2011 to present http://www.facebook.com/pages/Avspecs-Ltd/133710429995732?ref=sgm
EDIT: 2012 – DOH!

Hi Gus;

Great to hear from you, and glad to hear that the information was of interest.

I suppose it is possible that some of those 452nd members are still with us, but I would imagine that a fair few of those that attended that reunion are no longer with us. This was after all, way back in 1992. Have you contacted the 322nd Bomb Group Association? I would imagine that this would be the best place to start in trying to contact those that may have known your father.

I do still have on video cassette the film of the reunions that we had of the 322nd and 323rd Bomb Groups at Earls Colne in 1992. It has been a fair few years since I watched it, but I do know that the unveiling ceremony of the mural is on the tape. I’m trying to recall the name of the guy that unveiled it, but I do remember him mentioning that he was a close friend of John Howell. I will have to dig it out and watch it again!

I know the whereabouts of the photo collections for the 322nd Bomb Group that were held by the museum. There were thousands of photo’s! There must be some photo’s of John Howell, his crew and aircraft amongst the collection. I shall make some enquiries.

As for the mural…unfortunately, this did not survive the closure of the museum. I don’t think that Bob Day has a website either. The one guy who would have been a great help was Dave Brett, who founded the museum with his dad Stan. Unfortunately, neither are with us any more and sorely missed. They held an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the 322nd.

I would suggest also contacting the Air Force records people at Maxwell Air Force base. These guys are very helpful. Also, try contacting Trevor Allen. He is Mr Marauder and can be contacted at B26.com website.

I’ll try to help out as much as I can, so do feel free to keep in contact.

Good luck with your quest!

Regards;
Steve

Just lurking here, really enjoying this thread. Good ideas Steve for Gus Welborn to get in contact with members of the 322nd. Its important for family members to meet vets, for obvious reasons. I might also suggest contacting Marauder Archivist Andrew Boehly for the B-26 Marauder Archives at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. There are 322nd momentos at the Museum, so he may have contacts with the Group association or veterans of the Group. There might be a few vets in Arizona too.

B-26 Marauder Archives PASM http://www.pimaair.org/view.php?pg=58

Andrew Boehly
Marauder Archivist
Pima Air and Space Museum
6000 East Valencia Road
Tucson, AZ 85706
Phone (520) 618-4817
Fax (520) 574-9238

Steve Birdsall provides additional wartime photos of this fascinating B-17, originally allocated to Britain but taken back after Pearl Harbor.

http://aerovintage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=541

Why would it need to spend 9 months in space if it is unmanned? To act as a recoverable satellite?

Star Wars technology is real sexy, but look closely at what’s has been the U.S. Air Forces’ long range development strategies. A mobile enemy would require a flexible orbit for a satellite. Also, new technologies to intercept enemy communications need to be tested. This platform offers a high degree of flexibility. Also, they need to test technologies that would enable communicating with future hypersonic attack missiles. Plasma envelops a hypersonic vehicle as it passes thru the atmosphere. Plasma stops normal radio communication with the vehicle (GPS). Hypersonic technology would allow timely attack from CONUS. Conventional attack using ICBM’s is not practical. An alternative, secure method of communication must be developed to enable accurate targeting. The X-37’s flexible orbit, large storage bay, and returnability allows alternate systems to be tested in the future. Implicitly, there may also be a concern that China may have an operational ability to photograph and possibly return satellites from space. X-37 can change orbit or return to land within one orbit to avoid this possibility.

P-47 Rudder pedals

P-47 rudder pedals on Ebay, end date on July 8, 2009, item number 160345367460.