I read that the Germans were so impressed with the Mosquito Bomber that they tried to use wood as an aircraft material too.
Their planes kept coming apart in the air. They never could get the glue right.
They probably “uberclamped” it and squished all the glue from the joint. I find you need to clamp it just firmly, so there is enough glue to form a complete occlusive seal. Some guys I know use .010” glass beads in their glue, to keep that thin layer from being squeezed out.
“I read that the Germans were so impressed with the Mosquito Bomber that they tried to use wood as an aircraft material too.
Their planes kept coming apart in the air. They never could get the glue right.”
yarddog’s source had no idea what they were writing about.
As a construction material for aircraft, wood was already known to have advantages over metal (steel or aluminum alloys), but it had definite disadvantages (known also). Facing probable war with Nazi Germany, the British sought alternate ways to use materials forecast to be easier to obtain, as expected of wood, compared to metals.
No one foresaw that the DeHavilland company would be able to build airframes so strong, so durable, so light that any such dramatic performance margin was possible (initial spec was 275 mph; early in the design effort, DeHavilland engineers were certain they could reach 397 mph). Even so, threat estimators believed enemy fighter performance enhancements would shortly erase the DH98 Mosquito’s advantage.
The Mosquito did succeed in retain the edge in speed over all propeller-driven aircraft; it was found to be quite adaptable to many other roles as the war ground on. It could carry munitions loadouts as heavy as those hauled by much larger aircraft; it reached blinding speeds and high altitudes, and could fly to very long ranges. But it could not do all of those at once ... let us concede that tradeoffs bedevil all systems.
The aircraft did provoke envious comments from Nazis. Berating a meeting of German aircraft manufacturers during 1943, Hermann Goering remarked: “...It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. ... The British ... knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft ... There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. ...”
When forced to it by materials shortages, the Third Reich did resort to wood in aircraft construction: the He162 Volksjaeger was made mostly of wood, and the semi-expendable Bach Ba349 Natter interceptor incorporated a number of wooden components. Neither machine saw enough operational use to validate any opinions on the durability of German wooden combat airframe construction efforts.