What does the Mossie have going for it?

[Soviet]

Don't think this is a Mossie bashing thread i am actually interested in trying it out when they release it in 1.08 but what is it good at? it looks like it's gonna suck in the turn and speed department (judging from what it looks like) it doesn't appear to havea a tail gunner and it looks like a big easy target to hit, sounds like a british deathtrap!? i may be wrong because i don't know as much about RAF planes as i do Luftwaffe. VVS and US planes but what is the Mossie gonna be good at? and how will it be able to defend itself especially with all the Nikis flying around?

Thanks for any replies

[Karnak]

The Mosquito was very fast at low altitude, for a 1943 aircraft.  In the 1944/45 MA it will have a rough time of it.

Advantages:

Very clean lines means that it shouldn't loose speed very fast after diving.

Level speed of 345mph or 330mph at sea level depending on the model.

4 20mm Hispano MkII cannon with 150 rounds per gun. They are mounted in the belly and will have a tight cluster of fire.

It can carry 4 500lb bombs or 2 500lb bombs and 8 60lb rockets.

The wooden structure should make it more durable.


Disadvantages:

Slow at altitude, maxing at 380mph or 366mph at 13,000ft.

It does not roll or turn particularly well.

Slower on the deck than many of the common fighters. Here is an example:

La-7: 381mph
Fw190D-9: 377mph
Typhoon MkIb: 376mph
Bf109G-10: 371mph
P-51D Mustang: 367mph
F4U-1D Corsair: 359mph
Mosquito FB.MkVI: Approximately 345mph
P-38L Lightning: 345mph
N1K2-J Shiden-Kai: 336mph
Spitfire MkIX: 321mph
Spitfire MkVb: 304mph

As you can see there is not a single opponent that the Mosquito commonly had to face and many it never had to face on that list.


Ideas to think about:

The Mosquito has 1800 miles of range on its internal tanks.  That is 3,200lbs of fuel on an aircraft with a max takeoff weight of 22,300lbs.  Taking 25% or 50% fuel will greatly increase the performance of the aircraft, possibly even allowing it to out turn P-47s.

The Mosquito is a very aerodynamically clean aircraft.  Diving should get speed up quickly and then it should bleed off slower than in most other aircraft.

[ 09-15-2001: Message edited by: Karnak ]

[Replicant]

There were also numerous variants of the Mosquito which should mean that the bomber variant can be easily modeled in AH at a future time.

Regards

Nexx

[ 09-15-2001: Message edited by: Replicant ]

[Vermillion]

Nostalgia and Firepower ?  

[Fester']

i hope HTC gives it a buff tough damage model.

cuz its gonna need it

[Tac]

Mossie will be a premier buff hunter. Its size will let it turn with the strato buffs, its armament will be deadly against them, it being a buff (and made of wood) will mean increased resistance to fire, perhaps even the turbolasers!

Will also be a nice blitz bomber, porking fuel and stuff on a field getting in fast and leaving just as fast. And I wont even think how fun its going to be to vulch in that thing!  

[Frost]

I used to love vulching with the Mossie in AWIII.  That thing had a huge ammo loadout and bombs for ground targets.  Could vulch a field forever with the ammo loadout and it could turn well enough that you didn't have to extend for long periods before you could turn back into the field for another run.

[Karnak]

Frost,

It doesn't have a huge ammo load.  The F4U-1C carries more 20mm ammo than the Mosquito FB.VI does.

It will be nicely concentrated fire though.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

possibly even allowing it to out turn P-47s.
I fell from my chair, that was a good one WTG!  

Olivier "Frenchy" Raunier
 

[streakeagle]

Since when are wooden aircraft tougher than metal ones?

The reason British and Japanese resorted to wood and fabric so much was due to shortages of metals. Generally, given a high availability of metals like aluminum and steel, those materials would be selected for their strength to weight ratios.

I can assure you if wooden planes were tougher than metal ones, it would have taken a forest to make each P-47, F6F, and B-17  

Mosquitos strengths historically were speed and firepower.

[-ammo-]

lol, I bet it will outurn our spitbolt.

[Karnak]

Streakegle,

The Mosquito also proved to be a very tough aircraft.  The wooden structure did actually absorb damage better than equivilent aluminum would have.

The wooden structure of the Mosquito was much harder to produce though.  The glues were specialized and Mosquitoes operating in the tropics suffered failures due to glue decay.

None of the Japanese aircraft used wood in the same fashion.

[Frost]

Karnak, everything I've read about the Mossie said that the FB.VI had 4 20mm and 4 .303s.  The 20mm had 300 rounds apiece and the .303s had 2000 rounds apiece. http://www.compass.dircon.co.uk/Mosquito.htm   http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/mosquito.html  http://www.214th.com/ww2/england/mosquito/

Here is another couple of links that list the number of rounds as 300 per 20mm and 2000 per .303. http://members.aol.com/bluemax112/hangar.htm  http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/AARG/mosquito.html

Granted these are only webpages.  I don't have any well known books with specs listing these figures.  Can anyone confirm these numbers?  I remember in AWIII you could fire all day long in a Mossie.

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Frost ]

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Frost ]

[Booky]

WOW, if the links are true, which they may be, I doubt HTC will give us that much ammo.

That is 1200 rounds of 20MM and 8000 rounds of 303's.  

I just don't think HTC would be that Nice to me.  

[Karnak]

Frost,

That is a common mistake.

As far as I can tell this is what happened:

The Mosquito shares ammo bins for its 20mm cannon, it has 2 bins with 300 rounds each and 2 guns drawing out of each bin.  That gives it a total of 600 rounds of cannon ammo, or 150 rounds per gun.

Some author at some point misinterpited that and stated it as 300 rounds per gun.  This has been passed down through other books in the same manner as the mythical 15mm machine guns on the Bf109K-4.

I could not get solid info on the Mosquito's ammo load, each of my sources disagreed.  To try to find out what the real number was I emailed the RAF Museum.  This is the reply:

 

Originally emailed to Karnak by Peter Elliot of the RAF Museum:

Dear Mr Ahola,

Thank you for your enquiry. The RAF manual for the Mosquito VI includes a
table for weight and loading. This quotes 2000 rounds of 0.303 ammunition
for the Brownings and 600 20mm rounds for the Hispanos - i.e. 500 rounds per
Browning and 150 per Hispano.

However, there are also two lines:
"Total Overload Browning Ammunition, 3120 rounds" and
"Total Overload Hispano Gun Ammunition, 700 rounds"
which suggests to me that in certain circumstances the aircraft could carry
780 rounds per Browning and 175 rounds per Hispano. I have no information on
how often these loads - or other variations - were carried, but you might
like to contact:

Mosquito Aircrew Association
Mr T Wilson (Membership Secretary)
21 Kingwell Road
Hadley Wood
Barnet
Herts
EN4 0HZ

Yours sincerely,

Peter Elliott
Senior Keeper
Department of Research & Information Services
Royal Air Force Museum
Hendon
London
NW9 5LL
Direct line: 020-8358-4850
Switchboard: 020-8205-2266
Direct Fax: 020-8358-4991 (Office hours only)
Fax (24 hours) 020-8200-1751

It seems pretty solid to me that the Mosquito carried 150 rounds for each Hispano and had the capability of carrying 175 rounds as an overload for each Hispano.

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Karnak ]