cypherusAs to the question of building a Mosquito from scratch, the answer is simply yes, it can be done given time, money, plans and specs a flying example could easily be built by anyone with sufficient woodworking skills not far removed from the average cabinet maker as was proven at the time and if you include the use of modern adhesives, dopes, fabrics and paints the task becomes far easier, timber is readily available of the required types and even the ply and balsa wood used can still be sourced though is now very expensive indeed. Merlin or Packard variants are surprisingly still around in large numbers and fabrication companies can build the major components to spec as required.
But the question remains would it be a Mosquito in anything but name alone, I suspect not but people would still flock to watch one be it a new build or a restoration though as has become apparent the costs involved in maintaining a flying example even a new one would be prohibitive to anything other than a major organisation as placing an Aircraft even a static example anywhere near a group regarded as the public seems to invoke official departments into hysterical gyrations as they search desperately for reasons to prevent it without huge insurance policies, reams of regulations and rules and hoards of PC crazed public guardians to observe it’s every manoeuvre all salivating for the chance to ground it as they pick apart every nuance of a pilots control inputs. In all is it worth it, considering how many air shows have been consigned to history because they could not comply with some arbitrary rule change and how many aircraft happily displayed in the past have been permanently grounded due to insurance costs and red tape edicts so is it all worth the effort, costs and time involved to build what is in effect a pure display aircraft, doubtful.
cypherusI beleive Airfix did place limitations on cross wind landings for this airframe..:diablo:
cypherusA comment by a former Lancaster crew man might put a little perspective on re-sparring a shackleton,
If the wings come off during a mission, it’s a pain but at least you have the consolation of knowing that a falling bomber will do almost as much damage to the enemy as a rack of bombs will if it lands in the right place.
Now the CAA takes a dim view of such arbitrary changes to an aircrafts flying capabilities and I well recall the fuss and the costs involved that blew up when asked to make a change to a minor seat assembly from tube to plate construction to allow the attachment of an additional component, whole thing took months of trying to tease out some semblance of sense from the mess before the rule makers were convinced we knew what we were talking about and allowed us to ‘Officially’ proceed so don’t hold your breath with regards too a new Shackleton Spar assembly even if the materials are to hand it will take a very long time to convince the CAA it’s ok and if not then months of industrial scale planning to get enough stock manufactured to produce a single spar for this airframe, I guess it all depends on the willpower and stamina of those involved to see such a project through.
cypherusFine article.
Thanks for the invitation to read your recent article and let me say first off thre will be many that hope it will not be the last, informative and historicaly interesting with the points regarding the heritage angle hitting the mark firmly, Nice work both on paper and on the Airframe.
cypherusA little article I turned up.
I don’t know if anyone here has found this one, not seen it listed yet but you might find it interesting.
cypherusA lot may be lost in translation.
Seem there is a little controversy about this particual video if my French is as good as I hope, seems the discussion revolves around the position of the sun, various annomlies in the ground effects and the grouping of the various spectators and thier vehicles, however looking over a few more of the listed Vids it would appear that poor old Chad is the place the French send there maddest pilots who then proceed to beat up the place but I guess it’s probably better there than to have them doing it around Paris….. :diablo:
cypherusA400M progress
News has it that they finally got a piece of the A400M deleived as the horizontal tail surface arrived at the final assembly line in Tablada, now all they need is the rest of it to turn up….. :p
cypherusDiverse comments.
To replicate or copy a priceless airframe, and I keep the point contained too aviation, would obviously be a very expensive undertaking for any organisation or individual but the point has been made very well about the risks involved in flying these airframes at all, it has also been questioned as to who should have the final say in such matters, owners or establishment, I am going to sidestep the comments regarding profiteering as I suspect that it could in someway be deemed libellous should anyone be of a mind to do so.
The report mentioned was cited as something of interest published to give an insight into preservation of worthy items and how this might be achieved, the key points on aviation were listed and when I read it though I believed it may form the basis too promote discussion possibly on a national archive of Aviation related matter, seems I may have mistaken past indications that this might be a worthy objective in someway.
The HLF in my opinion has indeed missed the mark as far as aviation is concerned, by choice, lack of insight or constraints imposed, instead confining it’s activities to one off gratuities that fail too see a project through time and again, I cited 558 as one such project, the goal was known, the price fairly estimated and yet they choose not too fund this project to completion instead left it hanging on the goodwill of the nation notoriously fickle as it may be, and risked wasting all the money that had to date been inserted, as we saw this was not the case but could so easily have been.
Surely it is way beyond time that a national collection be established, that a register of so called Benchmark airframes be drawn up and a body formed to steer societies and individuals by legislation if required to care for and correctly maintain these priceless relics, and if that means grounding them for their protection so be it, the matter of constructing flying replicas could also form part of such a body under an educational umbrella were the construction process itself becomes a teaching tool to train candidates in methods of preservation of airframes after all would it be so bad to see a flying example of a mosquito again, even if it was actually brand new.
cypherusInteresting commentary.
Seems healthy sceptics are alive and well, but your comments broadly follow my own thinking on the subject, The recent X558 debacle only served to highlight the fact that the HLF, who seem to be the instigators of this report, do not have a grasp of the facts in even the most minor fashion, They rightly point out the truth about storage but have allowed the solutions to this too go unchallenged with the closure of so many RAF airfields any one of which could have formed the basis of a national collection for so called Benchmark models, they have idly sat back and watched any number of airframes either sold abroad or left to rot when the solution is clearly written up in this document.
In short the UK was for years a world centre of aviation excellence which successive governments squandered away for us, and today we still do not have one central body dedicated too the preservation of important airframes either flying or static and continue to rely totally on diverse bodies, groups and well meaning individuals to maintain a dwindling fleet in often appalling conditions, often under funded and with little future prospects of continued support, it’s long past time the HLF among other government bodies looked hard at forming a national collection dedicated to preserving as many models in flight condition as possible and collecting together those that need protection under a national heritage register similar too that currently provided for buildings. Now that’s a can of worms if ever I saw one. :dev2:
cypherusAbject apology to all.
Sorry for giving the impression that the Airframe currently installed on a pillar alongside the road at the former entrance too Ford airfield was a Meteor, sadly not but on the brighter side it is a Hunter which can clearly be located on Google Earth and is described as follows:
An ex-FRADU GA.11, WW654 belongs to the owner of what was once RNAS Ford and has now been pole-mounted near the entrance to the former station (follow the road from Arundel to Ford and keep on going out of the village). WW654 looks to be in pretty decent nick and was cleaned and given a new canopy before going on display, though sadly wasn’t repainted – having spent a few years up on this pole in all weathers it was looking even worse but was happily repainted in 2003. WW654 was for some time resident in Harry Pounds’ scrapyard in Portsmouth.
cypherusCurrent State.
Not a problem, I will be going up there over the next couple of weeks and hope too take a few pictures, same with the Ford example if I can get that way.
cypherusZeals losses
From information I can access here the aircraft may have been TS436 which reportedly crashed on 19th Feb 1945 while enroute too it’s home base of Leicester East carrying a full crew and transporting the ground crew, apparently the cause of the crash was determined to be that the aircraft hit trees on top of Beech Knoll about 2 km east of Zeals which were obscured by low cloud and came down within sight of the airfield killing all onboard except the pilot who later died of extensive injuries, a memorial was originally requested by a local man but in the end was erected by the WHMS with the permission of the National Trust, all relatives of those that died were traced and a cermony was performed on 14th August 1999 were the memorial was unveiled by Air Chief Marshall Sir John Gingell with a flypast conducted by Dakota N47FK out of North Weald.
The practice excersise being conducted at the time was that of glider ariel snatch , this resulted in the glider being towed off the ground without the tow plane having to land as described below.
The glider was fitted with a thick elasticated nylon towrope. Cradles on top of two 15 foot high poles held the rope in place, both ends of which were attached to the glider’s nose to form a closed loop.
A bronze hook at the end of a cable would snare the line. The immense strain was absorbed by the elasticity of the rope and an automatic friction brake on the steel cable. When the Dakota and glider were travelling at the same airspeed, the cable would be drawn in by electric motor. Depending on the load and conditions, the glider would become airborne in 50 to 80 yards, full acceleration being reached in 140 – 270 yards.
At the moment of pick-up the Dakota would only be 20 feet off the deck and doing 130 mph. Immediately before contact the throttles were opened and a climb initiated, the speed would fall off immediately to just over 100 mph.
The glider and it’s occupants was subjected to 7G for five seconds.
RAF crews were trained at Zeals, Wiltshire.
cypherusMeteor Condition.
Last week-end I was up there looking over the aircraft as far as it goes, currently it is in fair condition with little damage too the exterior in as much as there are no obvious holes ect though dents abound, the canopy is intact and the engine bay covers are in place, the aircraft could do with a lick of paint, other than that I understand from chatting too the nearby Garage which I believe has some say in it’s upkeep that they have to have a regular inspection of it’s structural condition for insurance purposes and currently it’s in good condition with little corrosion to it’s spars and the support framework that was installed when it was placed there.. Always thought it an odd place for a Meteor to end it’s days but who would have thought the one outside of Ford would last as long…. 😀
cypherusEverone has answers.
Seems the issue of Iraq is just not going to go away is it, then it never was really and anyone that took up the idea that the problem of middle eastern tribal politics could ever be solved by invasion/assistance ect was at best misguided and at worst totally idiotic in political terms.
The execution of Saddam too was at this time a mistake of biblical proportions as it has left the way clearly open for those with agendas to rightly point out that the verdict was forced upon the people of Iraq by the US, in truth while I believe that Saddam should have been executed for crimes he committed, that verdict and even the court case should have been left up to the Iraqi peoples to enact on their own behalf at such time as they had the freedom to do so and then too compound the mistake by allowing his body to be buried in what will I am certain become a focus point for every radical with and axe to grind was unforgivable
As too the question of scores being compared on a before and after basis on the current death rate it would appear that the posters here are falling into the same trap the politicians did and trying to rationalise the behaviour of the Arab nations along Western lines and sensibilities, something that cannot be achieved as history has proven time and again. Their life values and ideals are far removed from those currently enjoyed by western nations, the tribal basis of their society will always prevail and sadly the murder will continue into whatever future Iraq chooses to form for itself after the US coalition looses interest and moves onto another act of the worlds ongoing political stage play, such is the nature of a society that is formed of peoples who’s basic nature is corrupted by the natural problems that beset the region and is then compounded by religious zealots that use people scant understanding of the teachings of the Muslim faith as a tool too further their own petty political agendas, such is life I believe and the only solution the western societies will have too turn too in the end to protect themselves will be containment and while my own western sensibilities will not allow me too agree with the solutions that Saddam choose too control his tribes, in the final accounting those same solutions will be all that is left to the world leaders………Who ever said this was a New Year.
cypherusEverone has answers.
Seems the issue of Iraq is just not going to go away is it, then it never was really and anyone that took up the idea that the problem of middle eastern tribal politics could ever be solved by invasion/assistance ect was at best misguided and at worst totally idiotic in political terms.
The execution of Saddam too was at this time a mistake of biblical proportions as it has left the way clearly open for those with agendas to rightly point out that the verdict was forced upon the people of Iraq by the US, in truth while I believe that Saddam should have been executed for crimes he committed, that verdict and even the court case should have been left up to the Iraqi peoples to enact on their own behalf at such time as they had the freedom to do so and then too compound the mistake by allowing his body to be buried in what will I am certain become a focus point for every radical with and axe to grind was unforgivable
As too the question of scores being compared on a before and after basis on the current death rate it would appear that the posters here are falling into the same trap the politicians did and trying to rationalise the behaviour of the Arab nations along Western lines and sensibilities, something that cannot be achieved as history has proven time and again. Their life values and ideals are far removed from those currently enjoyed by western nations, the tribal basis of their society will always prevail and sadly the murder will continue into whatever future Iraq chooses to form for itself after the US coalition looses interest and moves onto another act of the worlds ongoing political stage play, such is the nature of a society that is formed of peoples who’s basic nature is corrupted by the natural problems that beset the region and is then compounded by religious zealots that use people scant understanding of the teachings of the Muslim faith as a tool too further their own petty political agendas, such is life I believe and the only solution the western societies will have too turn too in the end to protect themselves will be containment and while my own western sensibilities will not allow me too agree with the solutions that Saddam choose too control his tribes, in the final accounting those same solutions will be all that is left to the world leaders………Who ever said this was a New Year.
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