Spitfire Fighter
Did the De Havilland Mosquito carry a larger payload than the four engine B17 ?
Ok for people that dont know what the Mosquito was. It was a British bomber that took part in World War 2. It was made from wood with two Spitfire engines bolted on to it. It was used as a night fighter, tactical bomber, pathfinder and when it entered service was one of the fastest planes in the world.
Could a plane this small carry more than the hug B17?
No it couldn't. The B-17 could carry up to 6,000 lbs. of bombs while the Mosquito could carry a maximum load of 3,000 lbs. of bombs (6x500 lb.) or one 4,000 lb. bomb. But I think I know where this idea is coming from.
There is a school of thought that says that because the Mosquito could carry a "4,000 lb bombload TO BERLIN" while the B-17 was limited to about 3,500 pounds at the same range, and because the Mosquito suffered a lower loss rate that the Mosquito should have replaced the B-17 for long-range bombing missions.
But that is a bit misleading.
The Mosquito could carry a bombload of 4,000 lbs. to Berlin but only with a caveat: it had to be in the form of a single 4,000 lb bomb. But this isn't terribly useful for area-bombing a city. Alternatively it could carry four 500 lb bombs which was quite a bit more useful than the single big bomb but quite a bit less capacity and less versatile than the seven 500 lb. bombs or the mix of smaller and larger bombs a B-17 could carry. The Mosquito lacked that flexibility of load.
The other misleading bit is the loss-rate comparison between the two types. Mosquito's were used for many different missions and in very different ways than B-17's so I don't think the comparisons are at all fair. Apples and oranges as they say. Yes it is true the Mosquito could fly faster and higher than the B-17 but this is not necessarily an advantage. High altitude/high-speed bombing with WW2 technology was horribly inaccurate. Then there are the other un-intended consequences. The fact that B-17's flew low enough and slow enough to be intercepted by FLAK guns and fighters kept thousands of guns and their crews and hundreds of fighters in Germany instead of on the Eastern or Western fronts. That alone was probably as valuable and the effects of the bombs the planes dropped if not more. With the Mosquito if the guns can't reach it they and their crews get sent to the front where they can inflict much damage on allied troops. The replacement of B-17's with Mosquito's would also likely have the effect of causing older types of fighter that were perfectly adequate for dealing with B-17's being replaced by much more advanced aircraft at a much faster pace. Jet's for example would likely have a much higher priority than they did. Once the Mosquito becomes interceptable because it has no way to defend itself other than to run the aircraft is finished as a day bomber.
Then of course there is the other problem. On shorter ranged missions the B-17 could carry a substantially heavier load than the Mosquito.
As you can imagine I have never bought into the "Mosquito could/should have replaced the B-17" argument.
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