'Warspite'
06-17-2013, 04:54
The de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre at Salisbury Hall near St.Alban's, Herts, is otherwise known as The Mosquito Museum after de Havilland's most famous and successful aircraft, the de Havilland Mosquito or 'the Wooden Wonder'. The first prototype was built at Salisbury Hall and is still there.
Full set of thumbnails is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/sets/72157634173511900/
The Mosquito was designed at the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940 and was intended to make use of non-strategic material such as wood - this at a time when most aircraft manufacturers were rapidly moving away from wood to the more modern material, aluminium. One feature was a composite 'sandwich' of layers of thin plywood and light balsa wood which was much stronger and lighter than anything previously achieved.
The result was a 400-mph twin-engined bomber which was around 50-mph faster than contemporary enemy fighters. Luftwaffe pilots could earn an automatic Iron Cross for shooting down a Mossie. Later versions of the Mosquito could carry the same bomb load to Berlin (4,000 lbs!) as a multi-crew four-engined US B-17 Flying Fortress, but did it 100-mph faster, with only two crew and with a much lower loss rate than the lumbering B-17s. Mosquitos even deliberately disrupted scheduled radio broadcasts by Nazi leaders by bombing the local area - just as they were due to go on the air.
It became an un-armed bomber, a day-fighter, a night-fighter, a fighter-bomber, a U-Boat hunter, a photo-recce aircraft, and was eventually armed with a mixture of machine-guns, cannons, rockets, bombs, and even a 57-mm anti-tank gun. This last weapon was used for hunting surfaced U-boats. It was also used as a Pathfinder for heavy bombers. It would locate the target at night and mark salient features with coloured flares as an aid for the Lancasters and Halifaxes following behind.
It became best known for precision low-level attacks which included skipping bombs into just one building while leaving the others around still standing. It was also the aircraft of choice for Operation Jericho, the famous Amiens jailbreak, in which a group of low-level Mossies breached the walls and the main building to allow condemned French Resistance members the chance of escape. Off the Norwegian coasts it carried out shipping strikes while others flew into the Norwegian fiords to hunt enemy vessels.
If the aircraft had any faults it was that it did not do well in tropical climates. Mossies sent to the Far East were nicknamed 'Termite Traps' and suffered problems due to heat and humidity. Many were replaced by the contemporary (aluminium) Bristol Beaufighter. Yet pieces of a Mossie on show at the museum which were recovered from the River Thames after 30 years show remarkable resilience to water.
The present museum is run by enthusiasts and presents three complete or near-complete Mossies. The first is the original prototype which returned to Salisbury Hall in 1959. This is now in bits undergoing a complete restoration. The second is a late Target Tug Mossie which is virtually the classic unarmed bomber. The final version is a fighter-bomber FB VI which is undergoing a slow rebuild. It is now on its wheels and its eight guns (four cannons and four machine-guns) are being installed.
While the Mosquito is at the heart of the museum there was also examples of other de Havilland aircraft including the Vampire, Venom and Comet airliner. There are also remains of two Horsa assault gliders such as used on D-Day and at Arnhem. It is a little-known fact that the Horsa was also designed at Salisbury Hall and was manufactured by a de Havilland subsidiary.
Full set of thumbnails is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/sets/72157634173511900/
The Mosquito was designed at the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940 and was intended to make use of non-strategic material such as wood - this at a time when most aircraft manufacturers were rapidly moving away from wood to the more modern material, aluminium. One feature was a composite 'sandwich' of layers of thin plywood and light balsa wood which was much stronger and lighter than anything previously achieved.
The result was a 400-mph twin-engined bomber which was around 50-mph faster than contemporary enemy fighters. Luftwaffe pilots could earn an automatic Iron Cross for shooting down a Mossie. Later versions of the Mosquito could carry the same bomb load to Berlin (4,000 lbs!) as a multi-crew four-engined US B-17 Flying Fortress, but did it 100-mph faster, with only two crew and with a much lower loss rate than the lumbering B-17s. Mosquitos even deliberately disrupted scheduled radio broadcasts by Nazi leaders by bombing the local area - just as they were due to go on the air.
It became an un-armed bomber, a day-fighter, a night-fighter, a fighter-bomber, a U-Boat hunter, a photo-recce aircraft, and was eventually armed with a mixture of machine-guns, cannons, rockets, bombs, and even a 57-mm anti-tank gun. This last weapon was used for hunting surfaced U-boats. It was also used as a Pathfinder for heavy bombers. It would locate the target at night and mark salient features with coloured flares as an aid for the Lancasters and Halifaxes following behind.
It became best known for precision low-level attacks which included skipping bombs into just one building while leaving the others around still standing. It was also the aircraft of choice for Operation Jericho, the famous Amiens jailbreak, in which a group of low-level Mossies breached the walls and the main building to allow condemned French Resistance members the chance of escape. Off the Norwegian coasts it carried out shipping strikes while others flew into the Norwegian fiords to hunt enemy vessels.
If the aircraft had any faults it was that it did not do well in tropical climates. Mossies sent to the Far East were nicknamed 'Termite Traps' and suffered problems due to heat and humidity. Many were replaced by the contemporary (aluminium) Bristol Beaufighter. Yet pieces of a Mossie on show at the museum which were recovered from the River Thames after 30 years show remarkable resilience to water.
The present museum is run by enthusiasts and presents three complete or near-complete Mossies. The first is the original prototype which returned to Salisbury Hall in 1959. This is now in bits undergoing a complete restoration. The second is a late Target Tug Mossie which is virtually the classic unarmed bomber. The final version is a fighter-bomber FB VI which is undergoing a slow rebuild. It is now on its wheels and its eight guns (four cannons and four machine-guns) are being installed.
While the Mosquito is at the heart of the museum there was also examples of other de Havilland aircraft including the Vampire, Venom and Comet airliner. There are also remains of two Horsa assault gliders such as used on D-Day and at Arnhem. It is a little-known fact that the Horsa was also designed at Salisbury Hall and was manufactured by a de Havilland subsidiary.