PR Mosquito

[brianthemodeller]

Morning all

 

Would I be correct in thinking that the crews of the high altitude wore the brown flying suits similar to bomber crews rather than simple flying jackets like the fighter crews?

 

Thanks

Brian

[DennisTheBear]

One would think so. The only account by a PR Mosquito pilot that I've heard (from an audiobook version of, I think, 'Flak' by Michael Veitch, although it could have been in 'Fly' by the same author) was by Bud Tingwell and he made mention of the cold at high altitude but not if what flying clothes he wore.

 

As an aside if you haven't read any of his books about WWII aviation he mainly writes of the Australian experience of the war, with the occassional Brit or German pilot or aircrew living in Australia. 

 

DennisTheBear

[brianthemodeller]

Thanks Dennis. My presumption was based on it being *^*%# cold at altitude but I couldn’t find anything to confirm if I was right or not. As it’s 1:72 and I am not the best canopy painter it doesn’t really matter that much but I would like to get it right!

 

I will have a look on Kindle for Mr Veitch..

[sanguin]

 

This article may answer some of your questions, Brian; for PR pilots in WW2 go to page 28 onwards, but the entire paper is useful reading.

 

https://www.aerosociety.com/media/4847/a-brief-history-of-flying-clothing.pdf

 

Met Flight pilots had similar problems of long flights with repeated climbs to 30,000 feet, this shows a Mosquito crew:

 

https://raf-pathfinders.com/1409-meteorological-flight/

 

As far as I can tell the amount of extra clothing that could be worn was to some extent limited by the size of the pilot and the cockpit.

Also being able to easily get into and out of the cockpit was important... 

Electric gloves/waistcoats etc were dependent on the various electrical supplies in different aircraft.

 

Looking at many RAF bomber crew photographs it is interesting that so many of them show most of the crew in Irvin jackets and boots but with normal trousers (doubtless with a few pairs of long johns beneath).

Relatively few seem to show the whole crew in the brown Irvin jackets and over trousers.

This may well have been to do with being able to move around in such bulky clothing and get through emergency exits  if required.

 

And for those modelling TAF Typhoons based in France, pilots were issued with army khaki battledress to replace their RAF blue which looked too similar to German feldgrau.

How many wore them I do not know.

 

I hope you find this helpful,

John

 

[brianthemodeller]

That was a fascinating article - thank you! 

[Jim Kiker]

Hi Brian,

 

In his book "Nightfighter,"  Jimmy Rawnsley recounts moving from Beaufighters to Mosquitos as John Cunningham's radar operator.  He wore his "goonskins" from the Beau on his first ride in the Mossie and reported sweating as if he was in a sauna.  The key issue was that the crew sat right next to the radiators in the Mosquito, so it seems to me the colder temps at altitude may not have been a big factor unless one gets up pretty high.  Of course the night fighters generally flew at lower altitudes than the highest of the high flyers.  Food for thought...

 

HTH, Jim

[Ross Hunter]

I have a photo of Bud Tingwell in full flying kit, Tocra, 1944. Taken by my father, who was his navigator. Happy to share, when I can get a scanner. 

[Andy Fletcher]

I think it was down to personal preference. In the early days of the PRU there was no cockpit heating in Spitfires and there are many photos of pilots in Sidcot suites etc. That said there are also many photos with just Irvin jackets, although as John alludes to above they may have had multiple layers on underneath. I've read accounts of PR pilots wearing tights under their uniforms as well as multiple layers of gloves. The biggest jump in morale at 1 PRU came when a cockpit heating system was introduced on the production Spitfire V PR Type D (PR.IV) during the latter half of 1941. From then onwards all PR Spitfires and Mossies had cockpit heating systems, but how effective they were I don't know.

 

Cheers

 

Andy Fletcher

[Work In Progress]

In addition to any cabin heating system on the unpressurised PR types, and the side effects of hot coolant and oil flows around the Mosquito's engine cooling system next to the cabin area,  the pressurised variants were of course also self-heating to a degree through the action of pressurisation, which necessarily warms air as it squeezes it.

Edited January 21 by Work In Progress