“What we going to do in Russia Sir?” Dedmon stretched in his seat, it was going to be a long flight. Phil Clancy was a new member of the crew, replacing Major Pico who'd left to help form NORAD. Clancy had still to get used to the idea that the B-36 could go anywhere it wanted, any time it wanted, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.
“Just routine. We go there with Barbie Doll and Sixth Crew Member and stay for a few days. The Russians will ask us to fly around a bit, maybe overfly an area where the Germans are still holding out. In theory, if the Germans use gas again, we could do a laydown on them but that's fairly unlikely now. In a week or so, we fly home, another hometown takes over, then we go to Nevada. There's some sort of exercise due to happen down there.
Office of Sir Martyn Sharpe, British Viceroy to India, New Delhi
“Have you read the latest report Sir Eric? It just came in this morning, the Air Force has lost another one. Same story as all the others, the aircraft broke up in mid-air. We can't carry on like this, it's the fifth one we've lost this month. I've issued orders to ground the whole fleet until the problem is sorted out. It’s bad, but we can swallow it for a white, the Ostrich squadrons can carry the load until we get this sorted out. Is there any word on the investigations? I suppose the real question we must ask is whether the Hornet will be affected the same way.”
Sir Eric Haohoa thought carefully for a few seconds. There was a good reason why the post of Cabinet Secretary also contained the administration of the intelligence services within its remit. Both required the ability to distinguish what the important issues really were, as distinct from those that everybody thought were significant. Related to that was the skill in answering questions in the order the questioner needed, not in the order they were asked. This was one of those times.
“Sir Martyn, the investigation into the Mosquito crashes has reached some tentative conclusions. It is too early to make these public yet but the Accident Investigations Board thinks they have a handle on the problem. It's the glue, Sir Martyn. When de Havilland's originally designed the Mosquito, they used phenolic resins for the wooden structural members and the plywood composite skinning. That's all well and good, but they elected to use Casein as the glue in the joints between the structural members. Questioned on that issue, Sir Geoffrey said that it was partly a matter of economy, partly a matter of it being easy to work with and partly the fact that it has gap-filling properties that made allowance for manufacturing tolerances.
“That probably made a lot of sense in Europe where its cold and relatively dry and it was satisfactory in Canada where it was colder and drier, but out here, it’s a problem. Casein is basically just stiff cheese and the heat and humidity here is causing it to go moldy and lose strength. Also, it’s not waterproof and the wood in the airframe is getting waterlogged. That's particularly bad in the lower wing surfaces and it seems as if the break-ups with the tower wing surfaces disintegrating and their joints failing.
“This is hitting us in a few ways. One of them is very strange and ironic. We may not be a heavily industrialized country yet but we are a nation of carpenters and woodworkers. The components here are made to a much higher standard than de Havilland achieved elsewhere and their fit is much better. In industrial terms, we can work wood to much finer tolerances than the designers anticipated. So, there is less glue in the joints. That's good and bad of course, there is less glue in the joints to provide strength but we don't need the gap-filling character of Casein. Any adhesive that has the required strength will do. Another problem is unique to us. Casein is a milk product, A cow's milk product. We have serious problems getting Hindu workers to handle it. So de Havilland's recruited the assembly workers from Moslems.”
Sir Martyn looked up very sharply. “Sabotage?”
“Not as far as we can tell, more like they don't take as much care as one might expect of a more dedicated workforce. There may be some outright examples of sabotage but we haven't been able to find any. In any case, shifting to another type of glue will solve that problem as well. But, speaking of competence,” Sir Eric gathered his thoughts for a second. Getting de Havilland and Folland to set up shop in India had been a major coup for Sir Martyn, most of the other major aviation designers had gone to Canada or Australia. Being a bearer of bad news was a chancy profession at best. “We've been having a quiet word with some of the other aviation companies and de Havilland do not have a good reputation within the industry. Or rather they have a reputation for cutting corners and taking chances that other designers view with alarm. I think we may have an example here. It's not that anybody decided to use Casein as a glue in the Mosquito, its that nobody decided not to. De Havilland used it before so they used it again without considering the different circumstances.
“As to its effects, Sir Martyn, this may not be as severe as you fear. If these preliminary findings hold true, we will have to inspect all the in-service Mosquitos, find those that have deteriorated and scrap them. We can salvage their engines and guns, those are not affected by the problems and they represent the greatest burden on foreign exchange. We have Ostriches in store we can use to replace them. Our light bomber crews prefer them anyway. It may be much slower but it has greater firepower and its Pratt air-cooled engines are much less vulnerable to ground fire than the liquid-cooled Allisons in the Mosquito. And the Ostrich is heavily armored of course. The Russians didn't call it the Australian Sturmovik for nothing.”
Both men laughed. The way the name 'Australian Sturmovik' had passed through two languages, three accents and four countries to become “Ostrich” was fast becoming an aircraft industry legend. But then, again, so were the Australian-built Beaufighters. The Australians had taken the basic Beaufighter design from Bristol, cleaned it up and replaced the unavailable 1,600 horsepower Hercules radials with 2,250 horsepower Pratt and Whitney R-2800s. Then, they'd replaced the original four Hispano 20mm cannon with the same number of Russian 23mm Volkov-Yartsev guns and put six American ,50 caliber Brownings in the wings in place of the old .303s. With 2,000 pounds of bombs under its now-armored belly and eight 90 pound rockets under its wings, the Ostrich had proved a devastating close support machine. With the whole Mosquito project in growing jeopardy, it looked like the Indian Air Force would be using it for a long time yet.
“Fortunately, the Hornet won't be affected. It has metal lower wing panels and it is being built using a combination of phenolic resins and resorcinol glues that are not subject to water damage. We need to downplay the fact it's based on Mosquito experience of course. As to the Mosquitos themselves? We have to decide whether we wish to continue with them. We can change the glues and perhaps the wing paneling easily enough but repairing the aircraft's reputation may be a lot harder. Then, of course, there is the jet problem.”
“Or should we just bite the bullet and admit we got it wrong?” Sir Martyn tapped his teeth with the butt end of his pen. 'The Mosquito seemed sound enough a few years back but now it isn't fast enough or high-flying enough to avoid fighters. We could drop the aircraft completely and just concentrate on building the Hornet. The Americans are offering surplus B-27 Super-Marauders at very low cost. Really, we should be looking at buying jets but the fuel.......”