stress, strESS,STRESS

[bdk]

Thanks DADE!

My observations:

1. The measured compressive strength of the wood seemed to vary by as much as 20% which is quite a bit. Not sure if that kind of variation is typically found in aircraft wood materials or if that finding is unusual.
2. The torsional stiffness results (probably a factor in wing flutter) met the original requirements but didn't comply with recently revised requirements (after the fact?).
3. The result was better than the UK made wing.
4. Was the gluing in fact defective, or just the first part to fail? The strength of the glue joints seemed to be consistent.
5. The failure was at 116% "Design Limit Load" so adequate within the published maneuvering limits, but did not meet the specification (and neither did the UK wing).
6. The safety factor used of 120% is well below the modern 150% standard.

This report certainly doesn't implicate the Aussie made Mosquitos as being inferior to the UK made examples. Of course this is when the aircraft were still pretty new so one might wonder how those (UK and Aussie) glue joints held up after another 70+ years!

I love reading old reports like this in case you hadn't noticed.