De Havilland Mosquito: How A Wooden Plane Terrorized Nazi Germany | Gaining Altitude | Progress 

A wonderful film, I remember seeing the now crashed British Mossie, flying with a Spitfire and Lancaster in Crich (Derbyshire England) Seven Merlin’s together - I’d love to see that again one day. Thank you for the film and thank you all for the restoration and the honour given to the flyers, the builders and designers, the deHavilland museum is a great place, if you haven’t been, go there and see the tiny field where the first prototype Mossie took off, stripped of everything to make it light enough to clear the sheds.

Geoffrey DeHavilland was cousin of famous GONE WITH THE WIND actress Olivia DeHavilland! She lived to be 103, or 104 years old! AMAZING woman and her awesome amazing cousin Geoffrey DeHavilland, creator of the famous DeHavilland "Mosquito, my favorite WWII aircraft!

Because it was a lot lighter and cheaper than all aluminium construction. It was also incredibly strong and gave the DH-98 Mosquito a real edge. With its two enormously powerful Rolls Royce Merlin Engines, together with its very light airframe and wing construction, it was incredibly fast, especially at ultra low level. With later models, It was easily capable of well over 400Mph and was almost as manoeuvrable as a Spitfire, but about 40 Mph faster! It was also capable of climbing at a continuous 2500fpm all the way up to 35.000 feet, so it really was an “All-rounder” and Multi-Role Combat Aircraft. Used in three main versions in the RAF, as a Fighter, a Bomber and Photographic Reconnaissance (PR). The Bomber version had an all glass nose and could carry a 1900 Kg/ 4000lb bomb load, while the Fighter variant had Eight Machine Guns, four 20mm cannon and four .303 machine guns in the nose. There was also the Photographic Reconnaissance (PR) variant, which was Unarmed, although they were used in a vast array of roles during and after WWII. It’s RAF Nickname was “The Wooden Wonder”!

As an aero, I'm fascinated by the fact that with a full bomb load, it's static margin would have been zero (0.0) because of the heavy bombs in the rear. That means the pilots have to stear constantly--no dead stick. For a WWII bomber, that would have been unheard of. So it's operational Static Margin would have been 0 to 10 percent, the same as fighters. Bombers usually would be designed with up to 20% (more like 10%) static margin for stability and controlability, but no maneuverability. At full load and zero static margin, it gave the aircraft total maneuverability at maximum load! Genius. At high gs the structural engineering, light weight wood airframe, and pilot performance comes into play. It's not a duck, don't fly it like one. My favorite plane of all time. I missed my call as one's first officer. Ironically, static margins of WWI planes like the Red Baron's had design negative static margins. It is the reason he was so successful. His static margin was negative 10% allowing him to let the plane out of control while regaining it on the down slope. Firing from up or down, he was on a partially uncontrollable flight path. We do that today in fighters and even huge aircraft. Every large or small commercial jet has a negative static margin. Pilots don't have to compensate. Computers stabilize all howdy toidy aircraft. All ac have to be dynamically stabil, meaning you can get ahead of it and have to. Static stability is not required except in undiluted gliders.

I got a kick out of each speaker searching for a better word than "noise" regarding the Merlins. Congratulations on completing your Sweet Mossie. I smile whenever I think of a reluctant Air Ministry delighted to have been wrong about the concept.

That’s one amazing plane, amazing construction, great performance - just an amazing story.

A tribute to the Canadians and DH British design with RR engines

Marvellous Mosquito

Thanks very much for an inspiring and educational film about the history and development of the Mosquito.

Sacrificed strength for speed and agility

England. Thank you, Canada, for all you have done over the years - and still are, it seems.

The fastest machine in existence! Wow! It makes me wish I was a part of these rebuilds.

DeHavilland Mosquito was use as a photographic reconnaissance aircraft, a light bomber, a night fighter, and a fighter-bomber, with varying degrees of success.

truly splended thank you guys and gals

Just Fantastic to see another Mosquito flying again.

I’ve sat in the cockpit of a mossie, I’ve rebuilt a few Merlin 20s, now all I need is a flight ! Ha my great uncle helped in the design of the gypsy engine & ran the DeHavilland small engine division for a while.

in the 80s I worked for fisher flying products in s e ohio. we built two mosquitos, one fabric covered two stroke and one all plywood with 2 4cyl 4 stroke engines. the fabric one would clime around 400 feet a min, on one engine.

Excellent video

God Bless Don Campbell for finding a home for resoration

You are doing a very important job very well