There is no doubt that everyone of WWII had a favorite platform. In reality, it took every one of them doing more than the impossible to bring victory or survive defeat. I'm grateful for each and every one of them. Learning more about the Mosquito has been a grand adventure. Thank you for presenting the information.
Great aircraft..... My father was a foreman on the job building the prototype at Hatfield, and on later production. I live in NZ now, but one day before I die I would like to go to the RAF museum at Cranfield and see that prototype that my dad's hands helped to build. De Havilland aircraft were always beautiful, with their very distinctive empennage, and the world's first jetliner, the D.H. Comet, was pretty too... :-) Oh... by the way... there's a bunch of mad Kiwis that are making Mossies to order, so if you have LOTS of money, they'll build you one... Saw one at a display in Masterton last year. Totally awesome...
KathrynLiz1 wish i ha dthe money to buy one there are no flying servicable mossies left in the UK now ,, which i think is discusting .. hats off to your dad
The best plane of World War II WAS the de Havilland Mosquito. On roles it could fulfill alone it was superior. It was engineering masterpieces like this and the Spitfire that saved Britain. (Others will cry and disagree). "The Mosquito could be an unarmed bomber with a crew of two, *able to carry a bigger bombload farther than a B-17*. It was also a fighter-bomber and a night fighter with an eight-gun nose battery. It was the most productive photoreconnaissance aircraft of the war. A high-speed courier. A weather-recon airplane. A carrier-qualified torpedo bomber (though too late to see combat). A pathfinder and target-marker for heavy bombers. The war's most effective extreme-low-altitude intruder. A multiengine trainer and a high-speed target tug. A decoy frequently used to convince the Luftwaffe that three or four spoof-raid Mosquitos dropping chaff were a bomber stream of Lancasters."
Owen Jones You are correct about the mosquito & spitfire they were airplanes in their prime. It took visionaries to conceive of these aircraft. For the West it was saved by these aircraft. Nothing in the beginning was available to fight the Nazis in Europe. It was an amazing feat.
The Hurricane & Spitfire was the first last, best hope for the West. I keep seeing these videos about the young men & their devotion to the folk of the West & wonder how they could fly day after day without cracking open. I spent some time in RVN & though seem that I came out unscathed I have Agent Orange disease. It is literally killing me.
Anglsachsen Cilebi I beg to differ; too general a statement about Spitfire/Hurricane; each had its role in the battle of Britain. The Mosquito did what the other two did not: bomb, night fighter, reconnaisance, and all the roles in between. See the statistics on how many were lost vs the B17/Lancaster. The Mosquito had the best record in the bomber department.
If anyone has the chance, do visit the De Havilland museum at Salisbury Hall its well worth a visit. Lots on the Mosquito there of course, plus 3 Mosquitoes one of which is the prototype. But it's more than just the Mosquito, the amazing number of brilliant planes that De Havilland developed and built from the by-plane era to the jet era. De Havillands were real pioneers in aviation.
In many respects, the DH Mosquito reflected the fundamental failure of British strategic air power doctrine up until its introduction. The focus on many-engined, heavily armoured, slow and expensive strategic bombers like the Lancaster proved to be a horrendous waste of men and resources. The doctrine of "the bomber will always get through" caused the loss of many airframes, and with it, valuable aircrew. Thousands upon thousands of pounds of high explosive were dropped onto German territory, yet it was not until the advent of the Mosquito that a truly effective way of delivering bombs was opened up to the British. A fast, cheap airframe, manoeuverable, adaptable, and produced using non-strategic materials that delivered reconnaissance, bombs, and night fighter sorties made Goering green and yellow with envy. No draggy, heavy turrets were needed, just speed and skill. A large payload was not required; not when a skilled pilot could fly low and fast below cloud cover, deliver it precisely; and have the speed to evade retribution on the way out. A frameless monocoque, light and strong, heralding the superiority of composites to alloys in aerospace, and a large wing with very low wing loading for manoeuvrability made it a fearsome fighter as well. Here is a reflection of purity of purpose, put to use in a dozen different missions and coming out on top. What is clear is that the best designs often flout established doctrine and it is up to the generals; not the engineers, to catch up.
British analysis showed the Mosquito bombing to be more than twice as efficient as the 4 engine bombers. The night time area bombing was largely a waste of resources.
I chatted to a guide at the RAF museum in Hendon and made the point about the lack of effectiveness of the Lancaster's turrets. He said that they were mainly there for psychological reasons.
As a civilian pilot, I must say that had to be tiring flying under 50 feet for long periods. You have to keep the reflexes at a fine pitch and concentrate on what's in front of you every second.
My late uncle was a navigator in unarmed mosquitos which flew from leuchars to Sweden and back. They would go up to almost 30,000 feet before diving over Norway. The aircraft would have Swedish ball bearings inside the Bombay for the return flight. The german's stationed FW190 fighters in Norway and succeeded in shooting some down. They wore BEA markings and not RAF roundals but he and his pilot were in the RAF.
Wow. My Farthing in law was one of the designers of the wings for the Mosquito. In Christchurch Dorset Then he was sent to Coventry and Halifax. (War Work). He witnessed the blitz on Coventry As time goes by: I worked with a Flight Sargent who fly them. Also a Flight mechanic. He told me that after the service. He had to go up for a test flight… The pilot had full clothes… he said I had shirt sleeves (frost bite) I worked for Halls Bros in Whitefield in the 1980’s (Halls Mentholiptus).. The factory, before the war was a CO-OP furniture Factory, requisitioned for war work. They made the Plywood frames for the Mossis
Just an incredibly capable and beautiful airplane. Its amazing so many were built, seeing as most of that wood had to be imported just like other strategic materials...and the manufacture of sub-components was so distributed. Hey Rolls-Royce--I really think if you'd get back to manufacturing the Merlin you'd sell everyone you made! Reliable, low fuel consumption...a real viable engine for commercial singles and twins to this day.
At 14.34: Charles Patterson: I met him - he was a friend of my father's in 88 squadron. My father was second in command on this raid (Operation Oyster), behind Grp.Capt. James Pelly-Fry (met also). The raid consisted of Douglas Bostons, Lockheed Venturas but only 10 Mosquitos - 93 aircraft in total - not mentioned here!
Wow. My Farthing in law was one of the designers of the wings for the Mosquito. In Christchurch Dorset Then he was sent to Coventry and Halifax. (War Work). He witnessed the blitz on Coventry As time goes by: I worked with a Flight Sargent who fly them. Also a Flight mechanic. He told me that after the service. He had to go up for a test flight… The pilot had full clothes… he said I had shirt sleeves (frost bite)
When the man talked about the purr of a Merlin I know exactly what he means. When I was a small boy the Harmsworth trophy races were held off my Great Grandfather's farm on the Bay of Quinte in Ontario Canada. The Canadian boat used Rolls Royce engines from WWII. I ran into them again in my 20s in the Alberta oilpatch working for a fracking company that used Merlins to power their pumps. The sound makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and gives me goose pimples.
Gary Tarr . Dear mr tarr, i think you sent me a message that was intended for soaring tractor. I love the sound of merlin full stop. Be it one, two or four, but not three cos that means one of the merlins is dead, either through battle damage,bird strike or coolant leak. I dont spout xenphobic crap, just admiration for the combination of art and engineering. See s.t for that sort of rubbish. Blue skys sir.
+soaringtractor nope! The RAF were the first to use the Mustang but because of its poor performance at high altitude it was used as a ground attack fighters and a reconnaissance plane. Not until the Merlin engine was fitted was it good enough to face German fighters. The Mustang is not the pure US thoroughbred flown by US pilots you daydream it is mate. Fucking excellent fighter once it was upgraded. Calling the Spitfire a Shitfire just shows how thick you are. Other than the Mustang, what other US fighters compared to any European fighters???
Well it was, but was also a jet. Also there were very few of them and they were mainly aimed towards heavy bomber raids, not small mosquito raids. So in reality, Mosquito's probably never had to face a me-262, only other propeller plane, of which, they were the fastest.
Zamolxes77 Actually some of the first targets the 262 was assigned were the fast flying Mossie Recon aircraft. These were special aircraft lightened by removing guns and armor which made them too fast for any German aircraft to intercept, until the 262 began shooting them down.
Michael RedCrow The Me 262 was never intended to be used as a fighter and it was only Adolf Galland who saw them as a fighter. The main problem was that once the axial flow engines were spooled up they had to be left at full throttle as the throttle response was very very slow so to throttle back was a death sentence if there were mustangs or P47s around as they could catch them.But the madman hitler wanted them as a bomber and Galland risked his neck to use them as a fighter. Cheers
The British Air Ministry asked the British aircraft manufacturers to produce designs using timber instead of using aluminium alloys. There were 2, IIRC, the Mosquito and less successful AW Albermarle. There's a lot of rubbish talked about de Havilland being a maverick wanting to use wood. Also there were other, George Volkert of Handley Page, who also suggested aerodynamically clean medium bombers to meet the P13/36 specification of 3000lb payload and a range of 3000 miles. Volkerts design was estimated to be able to reach 300mph, Capt Liptrot estimated that it would be faster than the Spitfire. Yet many said it may be faster now, but will it always be faster? So take a lot of what they say about the genesis of this aircraft with a fist full of salt, a pinch ain't going to be enough.
Interesting to see the manufacturing processes used. Most folks tend to think they were made of plywood, but in actuality the fuselage and wings, and any other parts with compound curves were built over forms using individual veneers laid up over the forms, as you can't form flat plywood sheets into compound curves. This process , called cold molding, is commonly used even today in boatbuilding, and results in a very strong lightweight structure. Another thing. lets get past this nonsense about the Mossie carrying the same bomb load as a B17. The B17G had a combat radius of 788 miles carrying a 9600lb bomb load on a mission at 25000 feet, which is a fairly typical for the time. Its 579 miles from London to Berlin. B17 bomb loads of 4000 lbs were used on long range missions out in the pacific, and were hardly typical of operations in the ETO.
Yeah. "Individual veneers stacked" is pretty much "plywood". Of course you can't form FLAT AND GLUED AND DRIED SHEETS OF DRIED WOOD INTO "COMPOUND CURVES". YOU CAN"T FOR FLAT SHEETS OF STACKED DRIED AND GLUED VENEERS INTO COMPOUND CURVES EITHER NUMBNUTS. And by the way, a VENEER is a PROCESS OR FINISHED PRODUCT. NOT THE LAYERS THAT MAKE THEM UP. AND ITS TYPICALLY ONE LAYER OF A THIN SHEET OF "PRETTY" WOOD OVER PULP WOOD PLANKS OR PLYWOOD UNDERNEATH.
DEEREMEYER1 LOL, it's a lead pipe cinch that you know zip about cold molding or the use of ply veneers in it. You probably can't be convinced that a Mossie would roll around the earth before getting off the runway with a B17's bomb load either. Try to keep up with the adults.
Standard bomb load for the overwhelming number of missions for American Strategic Bomber, the B17, was 4,000lb to 4,250lb; the later American B24's was 5,000lb. The Mosquito ...... 4,000lb, a stunning payload for a two seat aircraft (later also sporting 4x30mm canon in the nose). That was only a hairs breath from the mainstream American Strategic bomber the B17 - such was the advance design of the Mosquito, which also flew at a stunning 400+ mph. No wonder 8,000 Mosquito's were built .... what an aircraft ..... way ahead of its time :)
Yep it was pretty cool... btw the 17 and 24 could carry far more than they were typically loaded out... main reason behind the anemic bomb loads was the need for increased range and close formation daylight bombing...
David Lawson Very few Marks of the Mosquito could top 400 MPH look up the performance specs of the Mosquitos their all on the internet, RAF test results at Boscomb Downs...very interesting
18tangles Nope ! ! Interesting if you read it I found the site of the RAF own tests of the aircraft...copies of the actual test...amazing how many results differ from each other....Can you believe the RAF or "somebodys opinion??"
Does any one have any more information about the pilot/plane (mentioned around the 25min mark) that had the dinghy inflate after shooting down the V1. Please let me know, I think it would make an interesting subject.
I wonder how long Mosquitos served with the RAF and other air forces after the war, as some designs like the Lancaster, Sunderland flying boat, Catalina/Canso, Mustang and Beaufighter continued in service at least through the 1950s in various countries. Did the wood construction effect its longevity and perhaps even the number of originals still flying?
The frames and fuselage were made of wood.. Geoffrey DE Havilland's concept was speed through light construction. It was a beautiful plane to fly, with two Rolls Royce Merlin Engines; it was also the fastest aircraft of the day. The foresight was also in identifying the army of .furniture craftsmen [ and women] would could be utilized in the war effort, with expertise in glueing and screwing pieces of timber. A great plane with many uses.
postwar46 Now you do ! ! that was the purpose of my post. Packard was building engines FOR THE BRITS. the Brits received 37,137 Merlin engines from Packard...Most people think Packard was building engines for the Mustang...that was a side show only 18,000 Merlins were used in US planes, British Lancasters Mk B III were the largest users with 3;440 built using the Packard Merlins built in England and Canada and 1500 Mosquitos and 1200 Hurricanes...England was being bombed and needed an "OFF SHORE" supplier from England..FYI
Ok ...So never laugh when a smart man makes a great idea work as well as this one did...DeHavilland was some man...right place at the right time... Are any still flying today .......
Gabriel Cox Since it was made out of wood, father time was very unforgiving. There are no old Mosquitos, they rotted away sadly, so closest thing we can have are replicas.
Zamolxes77 Engines remain, veterans of engineers still remain alive. combine them with fresh eager WW2 planes loving team and master woodcrafters, you will get good replicas.
+nixthematrix As much as i love the Mosquito, 82 TONS.... Errr i very much doubt it ! that would be like putting TWO train carriages on the wing so i think thats a bit of an OVER exageration to say the least. Maybe 8.2 ton would be more like it.
8 Ton aircraft, that would be 10 G I doubt it would take that, but I wouldn't say never. My Auntie helped build the Fuselage at SARO laminates on the Isle of Wight during the War. Great looking Airplane
nixthematrix Perhaps 8.2 tons, which would be about 17,000 US pounds. That's the MTOW of the P-47 Thunderbolt; she weighed about 5 tons empty. That big Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial had over 2,400 horsepower with the turbosupercharger for the P-47. IF the Mossy could carry 2 tons of bombs, then that leaves about 6 tons for the plane, fuel, crew, and all else. That sounds more like it: 8.2 tons. You still need to have a weight-to-lift ratio less than one for the aircraft to fly.
Question for all out there. How does one get blue prints for this aircraft? I have been combing through the internet to find something, as I want to build a replica one. thank you in advance
at 14:48 and 29:28 the French school in Copenhagen in fire - Frederiksberg Church in the center : "When the first wave passed the goods yard one of the Mosquitos hit a 30 metre lamp post and crashed near the French school. The rest of the wave found and bombed the target. The second wave got confused by the smoke and flames from the crashed Mosquito. Some realized the mistake before they bombed and turned toward the Shellhus, but only one of the planes were able to bomb the target. One or two of the planes in the 2nd wave dropped their bombs on the French school. The third wave approached Copenhagen from the west, passing the ZOO on their way in. All but one of the planes in the third wave dropped their bombs on the French school killing 123 civilians of whom 87 were children." www.milhist.dk/besattelsen/shell/shell.html
This was an amazing aircraft and I am not at all discrediting it, but which Allied plane harassed the Germans the most as a dive bomber before, during and after D-Day seems to depend on which video you watch. Notwithstanding specific missions (like the spectacular prison break) documentaries about the P-47 Thunderbolt make the same claims.
AND THE ENGINE WASN'T MADE OF WOOD! THE HYDRAULICS WASN'T MADE OF WOOD! THE WHEELS WEREN'T MADE OF WOOD! don't be such a pedantic jackass; the aircraft was of wooden construction just like how the "modern" fighters of the era were of all metal construction (as they would have described it)
Timmy GodLover shut up!!! this is a documentary about the Mosquito, if you don't have anything pertinent to say on that subject then keep your mouth shut. Find a religious forum or something.
Saw one on display and then flying last weekend at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Thanks for flying up to see us, Military Aviation Museum! www.warplane.com/ www.militaryaviationmuseum.org/
B-17: Long range missions (≈800 mi): 4,500 lb (2,000 kg) the rest of the payload was taken up with crew and machine guns. B-25: Bombs: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) Avro Lancaster: Bombs: Maximum normal bomb load of 14,000 lb (6,350 kg) or 22,000 lb (9,979 kg) Grand Slam with modifications to bomb bay.[81] This was the largest payload of any bomber in the war.
The B29 was NEVER USED against Germany, where it would have encountered ME109s, ME110s and FW190s, and even Ju88s too, and the FORMIDABLE ME262 JET FIGHTER, plus the ME263 rocket powered Komet, THESE German aircraft, would have FORCED those B29s "to their maximum ceiling height" thus making their Norden (I can put that bomb into a pickle barrel BS) Bomb Sights 100% INACCURATE, ME262s in numbers would have "wiped Allied bombers out of the skies above Germany NO PROBLEM" as a lumbering 4 engine turbo prop bomber, has got NO CHANCE in Ariel Combat against a Jet Fighter, in EQUAL NUMBERS, ME262s would have also CLEARED THE SKIES of P51 Mustangs too, using FW190s to escort these ME262s on landing, as that is ONLY when P51 Mustangs had an advantage over ME262s.
adam goodman I DO NOT agree with you!!! Asking: IF the germans could wipe off those B-29s out of the sky, WHY they have NOT done that to lesser types??????
What about the FB VI ?? it was 363 MPH at18,000 ft and a max altitude of 31,000 ft it was powered by the Merlin 25's single stage supercharger, as was most of the Mossies OK but not that great...
Because the flying example in the UK was destroyed in a crash at an airshow in the 1990s. I never got to see it; I heard it fly over once, but I didn't get to the window in time.
cyberskin1 I know I was just messing with you to see if you was one of those Yankee doodles who goes insane when you even slightly question the p-51. Which by the way is a stunning aircraft.
Tom Somerfield Designed in UK, but made in USA because USA had more manufacturing capacity than UK. Remember we had been at war with the Nazis for years by then!
Wayne Mierzwa Around 50 to enemy aircraft. Not many. Mainly because of the nature of operations - virtually all losses came against single engine fighters in daylight. Very few were lost to German night fighters.
Steal? you meant "steel" obviously but that too is ridiculous, as planes of the steel of that time would have been 'flying tanks" IF they could have become airborne. Everyone knows almost all airplanes were made of aluminum, primarily, An exception was the famous Horten 229, delta-winged "stealth" jet, which they did make of steel, as Germany's aluminum capacity was mostly destroyed.
Tim Coy You confusing a plane armor, with what was made off. Armor was added to increase pilot protection and fuel tanks, but was not what plane was made out of.
Zamolxes77 Tim was right in saying that the IL-2 was built out of steel ,the whole cockpit section was made of 6mm Armour which extended forward to protect the engine. It was a bit like a large bath tub. The were shot out of the sky in their droves by the German airforce but were armed with cannon and were the best ground attack aeroplane on the Russian front,good tank killers but very heavy. Google it and look on youtube they were very tough and hard to bring down from the ground.
B BÉLA I wonder just how many kill Hans-Joachim would have reach if he'd survived being shot down and hitting the tail plane of his aircraft when bailing out. From what I've of him he had perfect hunters sight and could get a kill with only a handful of bullets and shells.
wow did the researchers use wikipedia to get their facts.. The Lancaster was a follow on from the Manchester and was created AFTER the mosquito flew, Yes Geoffrey Dehavilland proposed a wooden bomber and was scoffed at, but he also proposed a bomber before designing the Mosquito that was based on the 4 engined Dh 91 airliner which happened to have a high wood content in its construction. The Mosquito was designed after the commencment of WWII hostilities not before as suggested in this video
There is a video on U-tube about a DH Mosquitoe's restoration in New Zealand narrated by a exBritish pilot crippled in a car crash and they talked about the engines cutting off during certain manuvears because of carbs.
Jonathan Priebefiddler the early Merlins would cut out mometarily due to fuel starvation when going inverted and then get an over rich mixture when coming out. This was initially solved by Beatrice Shilling who designed a circular disk with a hole in it, to be inserted into the carbs to catch fuel at the mid point of the chamber, reducing the power losses when going inverted.
For your education the Do 335 NEVER flew operationally and its first flight was FOUR YEARS after the Mossie. The disappointing omission from the film was the Nightfighter role it performed . During the middle of 1944 till wars end Mosquitos flew with the bomber streams to shoot down German Nightfighters. On one night a 85 squadron pilot Banse Bambridge shot down four.
Wilbur Finnigan This debate about speed is quite silly really. For example the P51's top speed was at 26,000 ft, at low altitudes it wasn't so hot. Now that is great if you are doing all your fighting high up like the 8th did, but most P51's were lost low down.( in the Korean war their loss rate was very high.) The Russian Mig3 was fast for its time 398 mph in early1941 but was never popular with pilots. As the old saying go's its "Horses for Courses".
"....built ENTIRELY of wood. " that's quite an achievement, it must have been difficult to design the engines, armaments, landing gear, hydrolics, radios, etc out of plywood.... Surely they wooden work, no?
Typical British puffery - The F4U series was a lot more versatile (as were many other aircraft), being capable as a: 1) Air superiority fighter 2) Fighter bomber 3) Night fighter 4) Recon plane The Mosquito was only suited as a nightfighter, light bomber or recon plane, it wasn't at all suited for the air supremacy or ground attack role that the F4U so excelled at. The Mosquito lacked the agility of a fighter and ruggedness of a ground attack aircraft, with the inline water cooled engines and wooden airframe being highly vulnerable to enemy fire.
18tangles Poor ozzie you are not even a man. Those Mosquitos and Hornets were and are totally irelevant since they went obsolete without seeing combat. They were not WWII planes and you know it. Even the Mosquito never flew combat missions off a carrier. They would have come apart after a few cruises with bad weather - and UK weather is always bad.
Could the F4U do two trips to Berlin and back in one night, the Mossie could. Every nation looked to timber for combat aircraft before and during WW2, to reduce demand of strategic metals. The Mossie was the best; yes in wasn't good in the tropics.
Defects.............in the tropics were common. Just like tangle's lies very very common. It only took tangles one tank of gas and one Mosquito to defeat Germany after which he had enough gas left over to A bomb Japan twice and then fly home for lunch.
I am sure that an F4U could do it in the day too. Unlike the Mosquito it did not need cover of night. It could fight as a day fighter. All the Mosquito could do in daylight was run. It could not engage in head to head dog fight maneuvers. If you don't believe it look up the number of Mosquito kills. It was abysmal as a dog fighter.
Eric Brown was your typical uneducated British fake. His education was in languages. He was not a technical person. As such nothing he said is much better than any other stick and rudder type pilot. He was NOT even an ACE. He never fought a Corsair and he never fought with a Corsair. The RAF high command must have been a bunch of dumb bastards to have relied on such a lame uneducated pilot. You might as well have trained a grease monkey to fly a plane. At least the grease monkey would know where to check the oil.
