Editing De Havilland Mosquito (section)

===Fuselage===
The oval-section fuselage was a frameless monocoque shell built in two vertically separate halves formed over a [[mahogany]] or [[concrete]] mould.{{Efn| Both types of moulds were used, at certain times and in different factories.}} Pressure was applied with [[band clamp]]s.  Some of the 1/2—3/4" shell sandwich skins comprised 3/32" birch three-ply outers, with 7/16" cores of Ecuadorean [[balsa]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Breskin |first1= Charles A. |title=Plastics Sandwiches |magazine=[[Scientific American]] |date=1945 |volume=173 |issue=3 |pages=155–58 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0945-155 |jstor=26061679 |bibcode=1945SciAm.173..155B |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26061679 |issn=0036-8733 |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220115234616/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26061679 |url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="Hickman">{{cite web |last1=Hickman |first1=Kennedy |title=Fast & Versatile: De Havilland Mosquito |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/havilland-mosquito-aircraft-2361527 |website=ThoughtCo |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211213000249/https://www.thoughtco.com/havilland-mosquito-aircraft-2361527 |archive-date=13 December 2021 |date=3 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Efn| This was specially graded for density to a mean of 9 lb. per cu. ft., since this species is highly variable and the cores comprised a significant proportion of the total weight.}} In many generally smaller but vital areas, such as around apertures and attachment zones, stronger timbers, including aircraft-quality spruce, replaced the balsa core. The main areas of the sandwich skin were only {{cvt|14|mm|in|order=flip}} thick.<ref name= "Aviation, 1944,">{{citation |first=Chester S. |last=Ricker |work=Aviation |date= May–June 1944 |volume=43 |issue= 5 & 6 |publisher= McGraw Hill |location= New York |series= Design Analysis No 6 |title=DeHavilland Mosquito |quote=assembled by J.L. McClellan 2005 |url=http://legendsintheirowntime.com/LiTOT/Mosquito/Mosquito_draft.pdf |access-date=23 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905183139/http://legendsintheirowntime.com/LiTOT/Mosquito/Mosquito_draft.pdf |archive-date=5 September 2017 }}</ref> Together with various forms of wood reinforcement, often of laminated construction, the sandwich skin gave great stiffness and torsional resistance.  The separate fuselage halves speeded construction, permitting access by personnel working in parallel with others, as the work progressed.<ref name= "Bowman 2005, p. 15.">{{Harvnb | Bowman | 2005 | p = 15}}.</ref>

Work on the separate half-fuselages included installation of control mechanisms and cabling. Screwed inserts into the inner skins that would be under stress in service were reinforced using round shear plates made from a fabric-Bakelite composite.<ref>Ricker, 1944 p. 8.</ref>
 
Transverse bulkheads were also compositely built-up with several species of timber, plywood, and balsa. Seven vertically halved bulkheads were installed within each moulded fuselage shell before the main "boxing up" operation. Bulkhead number seven was especially strongly built, since it carried the fitments and transmitted the aerodynamic loadings for the tailplane and rudder.<ref>Sharp and Bowyer 1971, p. 378.</ref>{{Efn| The bulkhead was a complex construction; see the ''Aviation'' article for diagrams.<ref>Ricker, 1944 pp. 6–8.</ref> Bulkhead 7 used special four-ply birch with 45° layup, and some additional strengthening using walnut wood.}} The fuselage had a large ventral section cut-out, strongly reinforced, that allowed the fuselage to be lowered onto the wing centre-section at a later stage of assembly.<ref name="Aviation, 1944 p. 6">Ricker, 1944 p. 6.</ref><ref name=forest/>

For early production aircraft, the structural assembly adhesive was [[casein]]-based.  At a later stage, this was replaced by "[[Aerolite (adhesive) |Aerolite]]", a synthetic [[urea-formaldehyde]] type, which was more durable.<ref>Thirsk 2006, p. 43.</ref>{{Efn| Aerolite was developed by [[Norman de Bruyne]] at [[Aero Research Limited]] (ARL)<ref>[http://uksaa-www.me.ic.ac.uk/awards.html "The De Bruyne Medal."] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131019161418/http://uksaa-www.me.ic.ac.uk/awards.html |date=19 October 2013 }} ''Society for Adhesion and Adhesives'' .</ref> The de Havilland company also pioneered the use of [[Radio frequency heating|radio-frequency heating]] to accelerate curing of the adhesive.<ref>Mujumdar 1992, p. 131.</ref>}} To provide for the edge joints for the fuselage halves, zones near the outer edges of the shells had their balsa sandwich cores replaced by much stronger inner laminations of birch plywood. For the bonding together of the two halves ("boxing up"), a longitudinal cut was machined into these edges. The profile of this cut was a form of V-groove.  Part of the edge bonding process also included adding further longitudinal plywood lap strips on the outside of the shells.{{Sfn | Bowman | 2005 | p = 15}}<ref name="Aviation, 1944 p. 6"/> The half bulkheads of each shell were bonded to their corresponding pair in a similar way.  Two laminated wooden clamps were used in the after portion of the fuselage to provide supports during this complex gluing work. The resulting large structural components had to be kept completely still and held in the correct environment until the glue cured.<ref name="Bowman 2005, p. 15." /><ref name="Jackson 2003, p. 8.">Jackson 2003, p. 8.</ref>

For finishing, a covering of [[aircraft dope|dope]]d [[madapollam]] (a fine, plain-woven cotton) fabric was stretched tightly over the shell and several coats of red, followed by silver dope, were added, followed by the final camouflage paint.<ref>Thirsk 2006, p. 42.</ref>