You have got to watch this. Beautiful film, but make sure you have the volume up, because the sound makes it even better.
http://vimeo.com/115546043
Geoffrey de Havilland said that if an aircraft looks right, it usually flies right. And this was the most beautiful aeroplane he ever built. And the best British (at the least!) aircraft of the war
For over 25 years, no Mosquito flew anywhere in the world, after the last flying one crashed at Barton Aerodrome, Manchester. That was largely because nobody wanted to trust the 50-year-old-plus balsa wood and especially glue in the ones that remained.
Then a chap in New Zealand, realising that the only way a Mossie would ever fly again would be to build a new one, discovered that all the original jigs necessary to form the wooden structures, had long since been destroyed.
So, as a "retirement project," (!) he set out to build new ones, faithful to the originals in every respect. Took him decades. What follows is the first result to come from those jigs. First flew in NZ in 2013, now in the USA.
Best aircraft of the war? :-
· Could carry a greater bomb load to Berlin than a B-17
· Could fly higher and/or faster than nearly all contemporary fighters, so no need for defensive armament
· The first true Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). Bomber, fighter, night-fighter, fighter-bomber, strike, anti-shipping, torpedo-bomber, photo-recce, trainer, target-tug.
· 1/10th the loss rate of the Lancaster
· On the relatively rare occasions when one did go down, only 2 men were lost, not the 7 in a Lancaster or the 10 in a B-17
· 1/3rd the cost of a Lancaster
· So fast that the Americans, to avoid comparison, issued a standing order that their fastest fighter, the P-38 Lightning, was never to fly side-by-side with one*,
· Quotes:
o AVM Don “Pathfinder” Bennett, AOC No 8 (Pathfinder) Group: "It's quite clear that the value of the Mosquito to the war effort is significantly greater than that of any other aircraft in the history of aviation".
o General Erhard Milch, the deputy head of the Luftwaffe: "I fear that one day the British will start attacking with masses of this aircraft" – (which we should have.)
o Reichsmarschall Herman Goering, head of the Luftwaffe: “It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy.”
P.S. There’s now a second Mossie flying in Canada. So that’s two in North America and none in Britain. Shameful! Come on Britain, digitus extractus !!!
* P-38 Maximum speed: 414 mph (667 km/h)
* Mosquito Maximum speed: 415 mph (668 km/h)
