Calgary Mosquito in the news again...

[Dan Jones]

I was under the impression that DH developed a new type of glue, resorcinol? for the Mosquito, better than casiein.

I believe you are right about that Bill, but I think the first Mosquitoes were built with casein. It's a good question. Part of the problems with the Heinkel He-162 were traced back to the fact that the RAF had leveled the normal wood glue production facility and a new type of glue had to be created for production of the Volksjager. Problem was that eventually the new type of glue proved to be acidic and would eat the wood itself and several structural failures of the aircraft resulted. I think someone test flying one of the early airplanes had a leading edge depart followed immediately by the catastrophic failure of the wing itself. I believe the accident was fatal.

Dan

Last edited by Dan Jones on Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Bill Greenwood]

I looked on Google, found resorcinol glue to be strong and durable, waterproof, even in salt water, resistant to the elements, and to heat and cold, parhaps even more than I thought. It is used in constrution and in boats.

What I could not find was where and when did this glue origainate? Did DH develop it or am I mistaken? I am not home, don't have any books with me to look it up.

[Tiger Tim]

Bill, I believe Resorcinol was a Hughes thing. Maybe developed for the D-2?

-Tim

[agent86]

Bill, I believe Resorcinol was a Hughes thing. Maybe developed for the D-2?

-Tim

If I was gonna guess, my guess would be that if Hughes developed the glue,it would have been for the HK-1 (spruce goose0

[Tiger Tim]

Just off the top of my head and without putting any research into it right now, I believe the D-2 was in development prior to the second world war. Something about building a long-distance racer (like, around the world type racing) that got re-purposed into whatever he thought the USAAF was into buying at the time. Anyways, it was mostly wood and eventually evolved into the XF-11 (which was not wood, IIRC).

-Tim

[Andy in West Oz]

I was under the impression the fuselages being built in NZ were using modern glue/s while staying faithful with everything else.

From Glyn Powell's http://www.mosquitorestoration.com/

Unlike an all metal aircraft, with wooden construction one is not able to reuse parts of the wooden structure in the
restoration. The only option is to build the whole wooden airframe anew.

I am building absolutely faithfully to the original drawings and specifications. All original materials are used except
for the glue. I am using Epoxy which is a far superior glue and makes a beautiful job of it. As well as being stronger
it has excellent waterproofing qualities which overcomes one of the problems the Mosquito gave in service,
moisture ingress.

No idea if Resorcinol is an epoxy of course so "Epoxy" could be a bit of a generic term?

[airnutz]

I was under the impression the fuselages being built in NZ were using modern glue/s while staying faithful with everything else.

From Glyn Powell's http://www.mosquitorestoration.com/

Unlike an all metal aircraft, with wooden construction one is not able to reuse parts of the wooden structure in the
restoration. The only option is to build the whole wooden airframe anew.

I am building absolutely faithfully to the original drawings and specifications. All original materials are used except
for the glue. I am using Epoxy which is a far superior glue and makes a beautiful job of it. As well as being stronger
it has excellent waterproofing qualities which overcomes one of the problems the Mosquito gave in service,
moisture ingress.

No idea if Resorcinol is an epoxy of course so "Epoxy" could be a bit of a generic term?

Somewhere in Mr. Powell's site he intimates he used the West System epoxy product, at least early in the project. Dunno if he still uses that particular product Dave. It's a common product here in the states to 'boat people' marketed by West Marine store chain. Epoxy and resorcinol are not related chemically, the latter is derived from formaldehyde and the former a man made copolymer.

EDIT for error.