Here is the May/June 2007 report on our work on the Mosquito.

1. Major effort this month on the overhaul of the landing gear. Numerous components have been gathered from the Drury store and we have spent considerable time dismantling and cleaning up the pieces trying to put together a useable set of parts. The retract cylinders have all been pulled down cleaned and inspected and we now have enough good parts identified to build up a pair for the aircraft. Some re-chroming needs to be done.

2. The main gear retract framework has also been stripped down into the various fittings and tubes and it appears that we can piece together a set of parts by swapping good ends from one unit with a good tube from another. We may need to replace one or two tubes. The steel fittings are away at the NDT shop and we have carried out our own dye checks on the aluminium ends.

3. We have dismantled and inspected numerous gear legs trying to find serviceable outer shell sections, but at this stage it looks like we may have to reproduce the outer shell of the leg. The inner components, rubber blocks, guides etc. can be reused, but due to the “dry” nature of the design and the lack of water sealing all of the ones we have opened have been rusted beyond redemption.

4. The centre flap hinge mounts were stripped down and found to be serviceable. After grit blasting and corrosion treating they were painted and re-assembled as a unit

5. We have continued with the fuel tank assessment and rebuild program. More tanks have been cut open and we are liberating all the useable components from these corroded shells and will be fabricating new shells in the future. There are 10 tanks in the Mosquito.

6. We have been making the metal parts for the wing tip construction and have fabricated the DZUS brackets and anchor nut strips. Work also continued on the flap hinge mounts. The final bending and welding processes have been completed and the brackets have been fitted to the flaps during the assembly.

7. Assistance was also provided this month to the wing assembly team. The top skins of the wing have now been fitted and the thousands of screws installed in less than 45mins.

8. We have completed the installation of the anchor nuts to the wing tank mounting angles. The 400 fasteners have now been fitted and the tank bay panels can now be fitted which will hold the wing in shape when it is removed from the jig.

Woodwork

Here is the May 2007 report.

With the continued delay in receiving the new glue batch work on the wing itself has been on hold and continued instead on the few remaining wooden items.

Flaps. Following on from last month, the interconnect torque tube has been installed and the associated hardware and nut plates fitted. The bottom skin has been cut and sized and sealed in preparation of installation. This will be done after the new hinge attach fittings have been installed onto the ribs.

Flap and aileron shrouds. This area has to be fabricated almost exclusively from the drawings as very little of this structure exists on the original wing. The structure is built up from number of small riblets and a quantity of these have been fabricated for both the aileron section and the flap bay.

The leading edge section is constructed in a similar fashion to the flap and aileron bays and a number of the riblets for this area have also been produced

Bottom wing skin. Glue and screw, clean up, fill screw heads and sand off.

Work has also moved onto the wing tips. After locating the drawings we have marked out and made the ribs, and assembled the internal structure.

We have then faired off, cut and fitted the top skins and attached with glue and screws. We have also cut and trial fitted the bottom skins ready to fit.

Work has started on the tail cone. We have sorted out drawings and original cones and are busy making the laminated members, bulkheads etc and are about to start assembling. The cone requires an assembly jig to hold all the pieces in the correct position and we will get on with making that this month.

Here is the June 2007 report.

Work continued from last month on the wing tips. There has been fairing, finishing and fitting of the bottom skins. Layout and make the cut out for nav lights etc

Further progress has been made on the tailcone. The laminated members have mostly been fabricated and set up on the jig and have been glued together

The skins have been cut glued and vacuum bagged in place. The extremities of the skins have been trimmed and cleaned up.

Cleaning up skins.

The glue for the top skin finally arrived and on the first warm day, the team was assembled and the top skin fitted.

The glue was applied over all the ribs and spars and over the skin surface, the screws were all started in the pre drilled and countersunk holes and all 4,500! of them installed.

Following that process and after the hang over had subsided the job of the clean up and sand down began along with filling the screw heads. also, the holes in the top skins needed to be install. This involves routing out tank vent openings and make Tufnol covers.

The flaps have also been completed this month. The final jobs were to fit the hinge brkts, fit, glue and screw bottom, skins then fill the screw heads and clean up.

The last few jobs on the tank doors were also completed . The doors were fitted all the screw holes reamed and the anchor nuts fitted.

The top engine cowlings have a wooden fairing on the top surface of the wing and now that the top skin is on, work can begin making that. The first job was to sort out the drawings mark out and cut the ribs etc.

Next month the wing can come out of the jig and work can continue on the leading and trailing edge assemblies.