Mosquito16.02.2010
From time to time the question of software design philosophy comes up, and I find myself half cringing and half smiling. Over the years I've found myself falling between the cracks of the well established principles. I wanted all the best parts of KISS, UCD, TIMTOWTDI etc, but none of the baggage.
So rather than languish in some undefined principal-less netherworld, I did what any student of Aristotles theory of knowledge would; labelled my own.
The mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a World War 11 era light bomber which joined the RAF Bomber Command in 1941. In service 'the mossie' was noted for its speed and diversity (it would serve as night-fighter, transport and everything in between) and it was the platform of choice for a number of the crazier operations against Germany during the period.
But it's the early development stage of the Mosquito that interests me most.
Mosquito development
The DH.98 concept genesis was an Air Ministry specification titled P.13, issued on 8 September 1936. P.13 called for a twin-engined "medium bomber" suitable for "worldwide use" with the ability to carry a modest bomb load. The RAF hierarchy expected a heavily armed bomber made of metal and designed around the idea of fighting its way to and from a target (an idea that quickly cost lives, even for the mighty US 8th airforce and their armadas of gun bristled B-24s and B-17s). You can imagine their disgust when the plans for a small wooden airplane was presented to them...
de Havillands prior experience convinced him that a small streamlined wooden twin engined aircraft could be made fast enough to evade any potential fighter opposition, removing the need for a heavy defensive armament and associated crew.
The Air Ministry was not impressed. de Havillands bomber didn't conform to their concept of heavily-armed bomber formations and were very dubious of claims that speed would be a viable defense. They also questioned the use of wood, a design approach that flew in the face of established best practice - surely the evolution of the mighty Spitfire had proven sleek metal designs were the way forward.
But wooden construction would have the advantage of using a readily available non-strategic material that could be easily acquired while taking advantage of the existing skills of the large number of furniture makers in Britain. Consequently, production would be faster and easier with a delivery rate far in advance of any competing designs.
In production the Mosquito would live up to every promise de Havilland had made. Its wooden construction resulted in a light and easy to construct aircraft than was faster than the current models of the Spitfire, itself a very fast aircraft. When the Mosquito entered service in 1941, 'The wooden wonder' had a top speed of 382 mph, while the vaunted Spitfire could only reach 369 mph.
On 30 December 1940 the Air Ministry placed an order for 150 Mosquitoes, from then on the only complaint the RAF had about the Mosquito was that there were never enough of them! Cameras, cannon, radar and torpedoes were all hung off the aircraft as it found itself engaging fighters, tanks and submarines - roles never envisaged by the original RAF specifications, but roles the 'Mossie' was successfully employed. A total of 7,781 would roll off the lines until production ceased in 1950.
The mosquito principal?
So, that little history lesson leaves us with the following points and principals:
- Don't let trends supplant common sense
- High speed at any cost
- Small size
- Simple to maintain and extend
- Easy to pilot (*ahem*... use!)
- The innate ability to be extended in ways that override all the above features!
Backpage has been created with all these principles in mind, and like the venerable Mosquito, has found it has a propensity for appearing in the strangest of places doing the strangest of things!
Those of you wanting to know a little more about the wooden wonder could do worse than checking out the Wikipedia article on de Havillands 'Mossie'.
Tags: blog, philosophy.