The Mosquito.

From Damn Interesting » The Timber Terror

...In 1936 the RAF commissioned several companies to submit designs for such a plane, and a civilian outfit called De Havilland responded with a highly unorthodox concept: a bomber constructed almost entirely out of plywood. Initially the British Air Ministry scoffed at the idea, and suggested that the airplane company instead use its resources to construct wings for existing bomber designs. But the people at De Havilland were convinced that their unconventional idea had some merit.

The aircraft designers originally conceived of a wooden airframe armed with several gun turrets and a six-man crew, all propelled by a pair of Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. A series of calculations soon indicated that such a plane wouldn't be particularly fast given its heavy weight, so the engineers discussed adding two additional engines to bring it up to the speed of existing bombers. After some consideration, the original thinkers at De Havilland concluded that the best way to defend an aircraft wasn't with bristling machine guns, but by making it so fast that nothing in the sky could catch it.

The approach seemed reasonable, so the design team continued to tinker with their wooden aircraft concept– though it still hadn't received the blessing of the RAF. They discarded the gun turrets and four of the crew positions, a reduction which significantly decreased the estimated weight. They also paid close attention to the aerodynamics of the craft, aiming for a skin as slippery as that of a fighter plane. With its pair of supercharged Merlin engines, the lightweight plywood design was estimated to have a top speed of 400 miles per hour with a full bomb load, easily outpacing Germany's fastest fighters.

The RAF continued to be apprehensive in spite of the impressive specs; a lightly-armed wooden bomber was profoundly contrary to the thinking of the time. Fortunately De Havilland had an ally in the British Air Ministry, a man named Sir Wilfrid Freeman. Freeman had been friends with the De Havilland family since World War I, and he saw the potential in the new design. At his coaxing, the Air Ministry finally authorized construction of the prototype, largely due to Freeman's observation that the wooden airplane would not sap the country's already bedraggled metal supplies.

After some setbacks due to equipment shortages and German bombings of the De Havilland buildings, the Mosquito prototype was transported to the town of Hatfield for a test flight on 25 November 1940. Its final construction was heat-formed plywood over a wooden frame, with sections glued and screwed for extra strength. It employed Ecuadorean balsawood sandwiched with Canadian birch, a particularly strong and lightweight grade of plywood. Metal was used in only a few parts, including the engine housings and some control surfaces. The wooden sections were covered in fabric and the prototype was painted bright yellow to discourage British anti-aircraft crews from firing upon the top-secret airplane. A series of test flights over the following months confirmed that the Mosquito was an extremely agile and swift machine, executing impressive acrobatics and reaching speeds up to 392 miles per hour. Further testing also discovered that the aircraft could easily heft four times the load it had been designed for.

...The unlikely wooden aircraft quickly established itself as one of the most useful planes in the Royal Air Force. The bomber varieties could deliver a payload comparable to that of the flying fortresses, while consuming less fuel, putting fewer lives in danger, and cruising at about twice the speed of the larger bombers. The Mosquito was also useful for low-altitude runs, where squadrons of Mosquitos flying at rooftop heights dropped their ordnance with precision, departing at full speed with German interceptors in hopeless pursuit.

My Uncle Trevor worked at De Havilland in a reserved occupation during the War as a specialist tool & die maker.

Michelle

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Regards, Michelle

Oliver Goldsmith, "I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines."