In article , Guy Alcala
writes
Dave Eadsforth wrote:

A double wheel, like the Mosquito, was it also an anti-shimmy measure?

None of the sources I have give the reasoning behind it, just that the a/c was
tried
with single and dual tailwheels. Assuming the drawings are to the same scale,
the
dual tires were smaller diameter than the single, around 2/3 to 3/4 of the
larger
one. Ernie Mansbridge, who was Supermarine's tech. rep during the prototype
service
trials by the RAF, reported the following on 6 March 1937:

"The split tail wheel has been fitted for today's flights. The pilots noted the
lack
of bouncing tendency, but on the second flight the wheels were completely locked
by
mud and could not be revolved until the mud had been dug out from between the
wheels."

Price writes "This type of tail wheel was not fitted again, and from then on the
single-wheel Dunlop type was used."

Guy


Thanks for the detail on that. Despite the fact that the tail wheel was
intended for use on runways, I guess they thought that Spits may have to
operate from earth strips occasionally, so abandoning the double wheel
would have made sense.

I was amused by what was once said about the Mosquito and its split
'anti shimmy' wheel. Apparently, the first time any pilot flew a
Mosquito he would be warned about the tail shimmy, and so his first
landing was so carefully executed that there was no shimmy at all. Next
flight he would relax, and bingo - all over the place. Got them almost
every time...

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth