what were two airplanes made entirely of wood?

Question

i know one was made in England and the other in the U.S. and both during WWII (1940s) but i need to know information on both

Answer 1

DeHavilland Mosquito is the British aircraft. Not sure about the American one. Hughes H-4 Hercules, (Spruce Goose) doesnt really fit the timeframe. It flew after the WWII

Answer 2

Nice question and many answers but most don't know aircraft. I can't recall reading about any wooden aircraft other than the Mosquito being mass manufactured in WWII

There aren't too many frontline wooden aircraft made of wood. The only one which fit your description of "being made" was the De Havilland Mosquito. De Havilland was the British firm.

But it wasn't really wood it was a plywood veneer. Plywood is made of layers of crosshatched layers pressed and bonded together by resin adhesives. Technically it is not a natural material although its root material is a tree. It is made by man. You can't find a plywood tree. It gave a smooth light tough strong and flexible surface. However it was harder and more expensive to make.

Here's news. Contrary to popular answers here. The DeHavilland Mosquito was built in Britain, and Canada. Not the USA.

Only the "plywood" was produced in the US and shipped to Canada.

Lets bust the Hawker bubble. The Hawker Hurricane was a fabric aircraft covering a tubular frame. The fabric was coated with resin dope paint to give it strength and water resistance. It was not wood. However the resin may have been extracted from wood. But that really doesn't count.

During the war the Mosquito was the only wooden based structured combat plane built. But during wartime all resources including aircraft of all types. Jennys and other old biplanes were initially pulled into service for flight training by the British. the Jenny is all wood with all the problems due a wooden plane.

But remember Britain fought for a year and a half before Pearl Harbour. By the time the Americans showed up the Battle of Britain was over. Americans likely didn't use wooden built trainers. The US focussed on building all metal aircraft.

Why would one build a wooden military aircraft? One can stamp out all the metal parts. Wood has to be selected by craftsman and selected. Plus wood is not exactly the best material to build on a mass scale because no two wood pieces are alike. Wooden aircraft are hard to build and maintain. Its a natural material.

Plus wood burns. Its bad enough to carry flammable fuel.

Plywood doesn't burn that easily since it is a modified material.
Also per unit weight it is both a higher cost to make and use in a manufacturing format. Metals are the ideal material for construction. But the plywood wings possessed a greater flexibility under stress.

Now you may have been confused by the format of the question. The US Military did fly an experimental P-51 which had plywood wings. It did fly quite a bit in tests. That may be the aircraft you were referring to. So far as I know there was only one.

How do I know this? Well I knew one of the test pilots.

This is a true story. His story began, "Well this big Major air officer came all the way from Washington and asked, 'How will those wooden P-51 wings do in combat? '

The pilot only looked at him for about a minute. Shrugged. Only said "Watch."

The pilot walked over to the plane and got in. He took off in a steep climb and went way up so high it was only a speck. And then he put thing into a really steep dive.

It came screaming down sh-it was flying off that plane. Antennaes were ripped off pieces of the tail got torn off and the whole thing shook like crazy near the bottom the canopy even popped off. Pieces of the plane came falling down. Damndest thing I ever saw.

'But he landed it, yes he did and the wings were the only thing not damaged on the plane. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. The pilot got out of the plane walked over to the brass and said. "They'll do!"'

Answer 3

The Airplane designed and built by the legendary Howard Hughes was made of wood because the government would not give him metal to build the airplane. It was named the Hurcules, contrary to popular belief and on the day it was flown, the press dubbed it "The Spruce Goose" as a joke, Spruce being a type of wood... It was intended to enter mass production for the Military as a transport to avoid attacks from U-Boats but the combination of the cost and the fact that the first prototype wasnt done until near the end of the war made the government turn down the idea.

Answer 4

The DeHavilland DH98 Mosquito had a wooden airframe, as did the Spruce Goose. But Lockheed (Allan and Malcolm Loughead's company) had previously made the Vega which was designed by Jack Northrop and Gerrard Vultee and was sometimes called The Plywood Bullet.

But nobody ever made wooden engines, windshields or gas tanks.

Answer 5

I think that a plane financed by Howard Hughes, called the Spruce Goose was made of wood. Not sure of some bi-planes from world war I, some may be. My Dollar Store balsa wood Joint Strike pre-fab fighter plane of four parts is another.

Answer 6

Bell Aircraft did build the XP-77. The concept was to see if a fighter could be built out of “non strategic” materials. It never got beyond the testing phase. For an all wood fighter it did ok for being as underpowered as it was, but the need to start mass producing the things never materialized.

Answer 7

The most famous from WW11...... The De Haviland Mosquito and the Hawker Hurricane. Both had fuselages fabricated from wood. Many other aircraft through the years have been crafted from wood, too many to name here.

Answer 8

Bell XP-77 The engine it was designed to have was not available at the time of testing; so a lower powered engine was substituted. It did not meet the US Army's specifications, so it never went into production; Had it had the more powerful engine, it might have gone into production as a fighter/interceptor. The concept was to have a great number of easy to build and cheap planes to defend the Continental United States.

Answer 9

Cessna built a wooden, twin-engined bomber trainer called the AT-17. Nickname was the Bamboo Bomber.

Answer 10

big usa plane called Spruce goose was made . bit only got a few feed off the ground...us had gliders made of wood during D day invasion.