Warbird Information Exchange

Noticed a deviation in their path during last fast taxi run. Possibly due to engine torque effects or just missed it?

By Andy Fillmore
Correspondent


Published: Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 10:05 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 10:05 p.m.
Russell F. Loomis Jr. needed steady hands and cool composure to pilot a Douglas A-20 Havoc fighter-bomber in risky missions over World War II-ravaged France, Belgium and Germany.

Sixty-seven years later at age 87, those steady hands are crafting a three-quarter-scale replica of another plane that helped the Allies pound Germany into submission during the war.

Loomis, a retired aeronautical engineer, can be found most days assembling a British Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquito bomber in his west Marion workshop.

The Mosquito was one of the most successful and unique planes of World War II. In an era when airplane manufacturers favored metal airframes over the wooden airframes used in World War I, the Mosquito was something of a throwback. Its lightweight fuselage was constructed of balsawood and birch and covered in plywood. But the design proved very successful for de Havilland. The Mosquito was able to fly higher and faster than most other aircraft of the time.

Loomis had hoped to build a replica A-20, the tough-as-nails and maneuverable fighter-bomber that carried him into battle 28 times as a 20-year-old pilot in the 1940s. But scaling down the craft presented difficulties in accommodating a pilot, Loomis said. That's not a problem on the current project.

“I have about 10 percent completed,” he said as he looked over the wooden ribs of the right half of the center fuselage section.

The 27-foot-long center fuselage is built in left and right half sections. Just the right half fuselage section and the rudder and fin, or rear tail, have taken about five years to finish. Loomis estimates he has hammered about 2,000 18-gauge nails into the fuselage so far and would “welcome some help.”

After the center fuselage is competed, Loomis will tackle the left and right engine sections, wings spanning 44 feet, landing gear and control equipment.

Loomis said two 500 horsepower LS-2 Corvette engines would be used in place of the original 1,600-hp Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.

It's a costly project, Loomis admitted. The engines cost about $6,000 each and the two nine-foot-diameter props cost about $8,000 each.

According to http://www.aviation-history.com, about 7,700 of the aircraft were used in low-level missions, including attacks on German Gestapo headquarters in Oslo, Norway. The site describes the twin-engine fighter-bomber as having a top speed of 378 mph and a cruising speed of 295 mph.

During his service from 1942 to 1946, Loomis flew a P-38 Lightning stateside on “high-altitude reconnaissance” missions. As a member of the 9th Air Force, he flew the twin-engine A-20 on 28 missions in Europe.

“We dropped (illumination flare) bombs that lighted a square mile at 1 million candlepower for 1/100th of a second,” he said. The flares were meant to illuminate enemy positions so photos could be taken to provide information for later bombing missions.

“We were called the independent air force because they couldn't see us, and at one point 80 percent of our losses were due to our own ground fire,” Loomis said.

Loomis shares an interest in aviation with friends Paul Sova and Jack Volkmar, who occasionally check on the progress of his project.

Volkmar, a private pilot, said he admired Loomis for flying the dangerous World War II missions with “primitive” navigational gear.