Wooden Wonders & Misfits of the Second World War

Wooden Wonders & Misfits of the Second World War revisits how wartime shortages pushed designers to build aircraft from wood despite aluminum’s promise. The article describes the de Havilland Mosquito as a “Wooden Wonder,” while noting it was not the only timber-based aircraft of the era. It highlights the Messerschmitt Me 321/323 Gigant glider program driven by the need to rapidly deliver tanks, guns, and men across the English Channel, using wood to conserve scarce metals. The Me 323 later adopted six 1,140-hp (850 kW) Gnome-Rhône 14N piston engines and is portrayed as a forerunner of modern transport aircraft due to features like its large clamshell nose. Another example is the Supermarine Walrus, an amphibious flying boat built for battleship catapult launch, which initially used a metal hull and then switched to wood in the Mk.II. Its roles included fleet gunnery spotting and observation, later shifting to air-sea rescue when faster aircraft arrived.