De Havilland D.H.98 Mosquito

1940


FIGHTER, BOMBER	Virtual Aircraft Museum / United Kingdom / De Havilland

Most aviation enthusiasts will know the usual stories of de Havilland's "wooden wonder", the all-wood bomber which was first planned by the company in 1938. It was to carry no defensive armament, relying upon superior speed to evade enemy aircraft. However realisation of a prototype was delayed for one reason and another until the beginning of 1940. This first prototype, of quite unorthodox construction, flew for the first time on 25 November 1940. When demonstrated to official guests at Hatfield, they were astounded to see its fighter-like manoeuvrability and its amazing performance with one engine feathered.

Key to this performance was the lightweight wooden construction: a plywood-balsa-plywood sandwich producing a resilient but light fuselage structure which could accept an enormous amount of punishment, and yet retain its integrity. Power plant comprised two Rolls-Royce Merlin in-line engines, driving constant-speed and fully feathering propellers.

The second and third prototypes were fighter and reconnaissance variants respectively. The Mosquito was to prove that it was more than capable of performing any task, and in the process is remembered as a truly outstanding British aircraft of World War II. There had, of course, been some official misgivings that such an unorthodox aircraft could carry out its combat task and survive in the war skies over Europe. In fact later versions capable of higher performance showed that the original de Havilland concept of an aircraft too fast to be intercepted was correct. Towards the end of the war Mosquito units were averaging one aircraft loss per 2,000 sorties - by far the lowest figure recorded by Bomber Command.

Many Mosquito variants were built within the three bomber/fighter/reconnaissance categories the first into service being PR aircraft which made their initial daylight sorties over Paris on 20 September 1941. PR Mosquitoes also had the distinction of being the last in RAF front-line service, being withdrawn in December 1955. Mosquito bombers, which had entered service carrying a 907kg bomb load, were later to carry a 1800kg block-buster in a bulged bomb bay. Mosquito fighters were to distinguish themselves in fighter-bomber, anti-shipping and night-fighter roles, and were to destroy some 600 V-1 flying-bombs in the defence of Britain. For reconnaissance duties the Mosquito was the RAF's major long-range aircraft in this category, serving in Europe, Burma and the South Pacific. Including 1,342 Mosquitoes built in Australia and Canada, total construction was 7,781 aircraft when production ended in November 1950

Specification

MODEL	Mosquito FB. Mk VI
CREW	2
ENGINE	2 x Rolls-Royce Merlin 25, 1208kW
WEIGHTS
Take-off weight	10115 kg	22300 lb
Empty weight	6486 kg	14299 lb
DIMENSIONS
Wingspan	16.51 m	54 ft 2 in
Length	12.47 m	41 ft 11 in
Height	4.65 m	15 ft 3 in
Wing area	42.18 m²	454.02 sq ft
PERFORMANCE
Max. speed	583 km/h	362 mph
Cruise speed	523 km/h	325 mph
Ceiling	10060 m	33000 ft
Range	2655 km	1650 miles
ARMAMENT	4 x 20mm cannon, 4 x 7.7mm machine guns, 900kg of bombs

3-View

A three-view drawing (678 x 630)

Comments

1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80

BERNARD RUMBOLD, e-mail, 19.02.2018 22:59

I had the sad privilege in 1963 to see 4 Mosquitos from No 3 CAACU at RAF Exeter at RAF Chivenor during their farewell flypast of the stations they served as target tugs. What a magnificent sight!

Pete, e-mail, 22.02.2017 23:47

Just saw the movie Mosquito Squadron with David McCallum, about using Barnes Wallis's Highball,a smaller version of the Dambusting Upkeep bomb to destroy a secret Nazi V rocket testing facility in France. Quite well done with a lot of Mosquitos in flying sequences. BTW A*****e, it's I before e, except after c.

Rod, e-mail, 31.08.2016 05:45

There is no doubt one of the short comings of the mosquito was that it was made out of wood, but it was built for a purpose and speed was an important factor. If it was a metal aircraft it would have been much slower. It was built to do a job and it did it exceptionally well. To call a piece of shit just shows total ignorance of the aircraft.

Norman Hume, e-mail, 15.10.2015 13:03

My father, being a carpenter, but wanting to be a pilot, worked on repairing the Mosquitos when they returned from their sorties in the far east.

Jack, e-mail, 11.04.2015 03:50

I'm with "shel" ~ why didn't we use the faster, more elusive Mosquito as a major bomber in ETO? Even if it carried less ordnance than the B-17, it was a lot more accurate. Why was it just used in bombing missions as a pathfinder?

Dave, e-mail, 21.08.2014 11:22

A superb beautiful multi role combat aircraft. Went recently to the museum Potters bar & was in awe to be able to stand next to such a machine - wonderful day

Paull Scott, e-mail, 22.05.2014 02:49

One of the finest, beautiful, versatile aircraft ever to fly. Shame about the glue in the Far East, until they sorted it, but a great 'plane nonetheless.

Rod Goddard, e-mail, 07.02.2014 16:10

My father flew the first Mosquito attack on the Japanese in the South Pacific. Was sent up to Borneo to test a new cluster bomb. After he arrived they were informed the bomb would explode to close to the aircraft so he was no longer required to test it. So they decided while he was there he should pitch in and give the Japs a taste of the Mosquito. he did say by the 3rd pass the Japs had worked out his speed. Said the war ended just in time, because the tropics were causing the glue to give way and the wood to delaminate. Six months longer and they would have been falling out of the sky. Said it was sad to hear that the air force put a bulldozer through the aircraft when they got home.

Stewart Green, e-mail, 21.10.2013 23:56

My Dad flew 40-odd missions in his Mosquito(s) in WW2, and wrote 30 pages of memoires if anyone is interested in reading them. Some really good /interesting stuff.

joe dockstader, e-mail, 30.01.2013 02:27

my all-time favorite plane. just something about its ability to do anything and everything imaginable, from dogfighting to precision bombing, with such ability and grace that it outdid most of the planes that were specifically designed for that mission... I love it.

John Joss, e-mail, 14.01.2013 19:25

My uncle Joe Cooper was a Squadron Leader flying night-fighter Mosquitos out of Little Snoring, Norfolk (parts of the base still stand). The squadron 'kill' ladder may be seen to this day in the local church, and Joe Cooper is the first name--he nailed an Me-110 over its base in Germany.
Highly recommended: the book AIRBORNE, by the late Neil Williams, which includes a chapter on flying the Mosquito--his sense of humour is strongly evident. Copies can still be found on the Web. Williams' comments on flying many different types, and various flying adventures, are excellent. His book on aerobatics (he was a world-championship competitor) is also excellent.

Mike, 31.12.2012 20:18

Shame we have people like A*****E making such unintelligent ill informed and crude comments on this site but at least he chose a totally appropriate name for himself.

Sven, 05.12.2012 15:48

Oh dear! Where does all this come from? Wood shows up on radar,so did the Horten wings. Stealth was not the reason for the chosen structure or shape. Got that peeps?

Jim, e-mail, 05.12.2012 11:51

Its wooden construction made it invisible on German radar. Probably the first stealth aircraft?

asshole, 11.11.2012 23:30

this plane is a peice of shit it was wood

Dave Tustin, e-mail, 24.09.2012 07:49

There were two photo-reconnaissance companies operating Mosquitos in the 1950's and used Winnipeg as a base when I was a Tower Controller. I remember the pilots were very wary of loosing an engine on final and would fly the downwind at 2000'agl as a precaution. One day we had a Trans Canada Airlines Viscount with a u /s airspeed indicator inbound for landing. We had a Mosquito flying local and we arranged with the pilot to fly the Viscount down final approach at the appropriate airspeed. Neat operation - Beautiful aircraft!!

Paul Scott, e-mail, 13.07.2012 16:09

Amazing aircraft for its day, world-beating and versatile!

Gabriel, e-mail, 05.05.2012 08:39

I agree with exactly SHELL opinion.
"Mossie" could be a fighter, a strategic bomber, fly recon missions, be a night fighter, a pathfinder, a tactical fighter bomber.....great speed, range, firepower, durability, bomb load, everything needed in a war winning plane.
It probably was the most complete, efective, versatile, multirole and BEAUTIFUL warbird on WW2.
Mr.Goefrey DeHavilland..was a genius designer.

Gabriel, e-mail, 05.05.2012 08:39

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