WW2 British icon

I saw the BAe Mosquito several times before its fatal crash and it was a lovely sight and sound. I hope this project is financially viable, but I have to say in the current financial climate I don't think it is.

Building a Mosquito from scratch is a major undertaking since the fuselage was built in a mould, although Avspecs in New Zealand -- Welcome to Avspecs Ltd - is planning to get their FB 26 flying this September after about 10 years of restoration. Interestingly the Avspecs aircraft uses a brand new airframe built by Glyn Powell, a retired enthusiast in a "shed" in his back garden. (if you can get a copy there is a good write up in "Aeroplane monthly" march this year) Now the moulds are available the major components can be fabricated from new but a lot of other parts still need to be found and as The People's Mosquito project's base airframe is one that was buried in 1949 following a crash and fire which destroyed the majority of the wooden aircraft there can be very little of even the metal bits in a usable condition.
Ian C

kjohnr2001 said:

Having spoken to the guys at Coningsby (home of the BBMF), the reason they have a Dakota is that when the memorial flight is away for a weekend airshow, spares, fitters etc and misc parts are carried in the Dak....
If anyone is close to Bradwell in Essex, have a look at the memorial erected to the mossie crews - it consists of a mossie buried nose down up to its wing chords - absolute disgrace.
Anyone going to the DeHavilland museum for the Pathfinders day next month?

Click to expand...

Made a point of viewing this memorial sometime ago, it's not a full size Mossie in the ground, the Mossies were flying intruder raids from Bradwell, lot of Aussies, New Zealanders and a few South Africans "bought" it flying over France.

Fantastic aircraft, particularly when you realise that it was a fighter bomber with speed superiority but could carry a bigger bomb load than a B17.
Wonderfully versatile, built to a DeHavilland spec, to paraphrase Goering, "The British have all the resources aluminum and steel and build a superb aircraft out of wood, at the end of the war, I'll buy a British radio knowing that it will never go wrong!"..
If she wasn't carrying a big bomb load she could bring you home on one of the superb Merlins..

If you get a chance, have a look on UTube at the Mossie fitted with the 57mm Autocannon... amazing....IMHO British engineering at it's ingenious best!

B
Just a further clarification...as great as the Mossie was, you don't want to be flying one in India or the Far East as the glue tended to come unstuck (Temp/Humidity, who knows?), sounds daft but there were a few unexplained accidents and rumblings that some of the production quality wasn't that great on a few mks....